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Re: surface/volume ratio and water loss in smallest amniotes
The following paper requires payment to access, but would certainly answer a
few questions about
water loss in small birds (especially hummingbirds):
Robert C. Lasiewski 1964. Body Temperatures, Heart and Breathing Rate, and
Evaporative Water
Loss in Hummingbirds. Physiological Zoology, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp.
212-223
http://www.jstor.org/pss/30152332
This next one is freely available and suggests that for pigeons at least,
cutaneous water loss
outstrips respiratory water loss while in flight (although the reverse is true
at rest).
Gilead Michaeli and Berry Pinshow 2001. Respiratory water loss in free-flying
pigeons. Journal of
Experimental Biology 204:3803-3814
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/204/21/3803.pdf
I'm not sure how this research would translate to non-avian creatures though,
given that avian
integument and respiration is quite different to that of other creatures.
--
_____________________________________________________________
Dann Pigdon
GIS Specialist Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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