Allometry of behavior
Abstract
The study of allometric and size scaling relationships is well developed in most biological fields, but lags behind in the area of animal behavior. Part of the reason for this deficit is that scaling relationships of behaviors tend to be inherently more 'noisy' than other biological scaling relationships. However, body size has a pervasive influence on the performance of animals in their environments. For example, the frequently strong relationship between power-to-mass ratios and locomotor performance means that smaller species and individuals enjoy superior locomotor performance (burst acceleration and maneuverability) than larger species, particularly within a clade. We suggest that these size-related functional influences on performance profoundly influence many aspects of animal behavior, such as how animals forage, fight, flee, perceive danger, respond to risk and interact with other individuals. We outline exciting avenues for research on the allometry of behavior by integrating scaling and functional perspectives.
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Occasional climbers require little behavioural or morphological adaptations.
“Occasional climbers, require little behavioural or morphological adaptations.”
From Assessing Arboreal Adaptations of Bird Antecedents: Testing the Ecological Setting of the Origin of the Avian Flight Stroke (2011) · cites this paper as [33]
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Putting predators back into behavioral predator–prey interactions
Lima, S. L. (2002) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(01)02393-x · Cited by 748 · see citing works
CLADISTIC TESTS OF ADAPTATIONAL HYPOTHESES
Coddington, J. A. (1988) · Cladistics · doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.1988.tb00465.x · Cited by 438 · see citing works
Wing-assisted incline running and the evolution of flight.
Dial, K. P. (2003) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1078237 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
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Montgomery, S. H., Capellini, I., Barton, R. A., & Mundy, N. I. (2010) · BMC Biology · doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-9 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Dececchi, T. A., & Larsson, H. C. E. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022292 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“However, similar to the ability to swim, these nonspecialized taxa show little propensity in the act and are at greater risk of injury from falling [25,33].”
BackgroundMethodPérez‐Camacho, L., Martínez‐Hesterkamp, S., Rebollo, S., García‐Salgado, G., & Morales‐Castilla, I. (2018) · Journal of Avian Biology · doi:10.1111/jav.01745 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Parameterizing animal sounds and motion with animal-attached tags to study acoustic communication
Casoli, M., Johnson, M., McHugh, K. A., Wells, R. S., & Tyack, P. L. (2022) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1007/s00265-022-03154-0 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Dial, K. P., Greene, E., & Irschick, D. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Montana (US)
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dial, Kenneth P.
- Venue
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-07
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 394-401
- ISSN
- 0169-5347 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2061126383
- Cited by
- 207
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 1.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst (University of Massachusetts Amherst) (submittedVersion)
- Scholarworks (University of Massachusetts Amherst) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- body size scaling, locomotor performance, specific power, foraging behavior, fighting behavior, predator avoidance, risk response, animal behavior, functional morphology
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Biometry, Body Weight, Ecology, Biological Evolution, Locomotion, Models, Biological, Risk Factors, Species Specificity, Body Size
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