CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 2,677Physiological and biochemical adaptationsEvolution and Paleontology StudiesComparative Animal Anatomy Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

Scaling: Why is Animal Size so Important?

Schmidt-Nielsen, Knut·1984·Cambridge University Press eBooks
DOI 10.1017/cbo9781139167826
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

This book is about the importance of animal size. We tend to think of animal function in chemical terms and talk of water, salts, proteins, enzymes, oxygen, energy, and so on. We should not forget, however, that physical laws are equally important, for they determine rates of diffusion and heat transfer, transfer of force and momentum, the strength of structures, the dynamics of locomotion, and other aspects of the functioning of animal bodies. Physical laws provide possibilities and opportunities for an organism, yet they also impose constraints, setting limits to what is physically possible. This book aims to give an understanding of these rules because of their profound implications when we deal with animals of widely different size and scale. The reader will find that the book raises many questions. Remarkable and puzzling information makes it read a little like a detective story, but the last chapter, instead of giving the final solution, neither answers all questions nor provides one great unifying principle.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/cbo9781139167826

Cites

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Schmidt-Nielsen, K.
Venue
Cambridge University Press eBooks
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
1984-07-27
DOI
10.1017/cbo9781139167826
OpenAlex
W4239578492
Cited by
2,677
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 62 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 92 · 2023: 107 · 2022: 95 · 2021: 91 · 2020: 85 · 2019: 105 · 2018: 98 · 2017: 84 · 2016: 101 · 2015: 83 · 2014: 93 · 2013: 77 · 2012: 91
FWCI
30.96
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 10175 d)
Locations
Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Anatomy › Comparative Animal Anatomy Studies
Keywords
animal size, allometry, diffusion, heat transfer, structural strength, locomotion, scaling laws, animal physiology

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review