Biological rules

The pygmy mammoth illustrates the island rule (Foster's rule), being unusually small to suit the resources of its island home.

Biological rules or biological laws describe patterns seen in animals and plants, often as ecogeographical rules about the distribution of species around the world. Many of these regularities of ecology and biogeography are named after the people who first described them.

Rules

Allen's rule states that the body shapes and proportions of endotherms vary by climatic temperature by either minimizing exposed surface area to minimize heat loss in cold climates or maximizing exposed surface area to maximize heat loss in hot climates. It is named after Joel Asaph Allen who described it in 1877.[1][2]

Bergmann's rule states that within a broadly distributed taxonomic clade, populations and species of larger size are found in colder environments, and species of smaller size are found in warmer regions. It applies with exceptions to many mammals and birds. It was named after Carl Bergmann who described it in 1847.[3][4][5][6][7]

Cope's rule states that animal population lineages tend to increase in body size over evolutionary time. The rule is named for the palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope.[8][9]

Foster's rule or the Island rule states that members of a species get smaller or bigger depending on the resources available in the environment.[10][11][12] The rule was first stated by J. Bristol Foster in 1964 in the journal Nature, in an article titled "The evolution of mammals on islands".[13]

Gause's law or the competitive exclusion principle states that two species competing for the same resource cannot coexist at constant population values. The competition leads either to the extinction of the weaker competitor or to an evolutionary or behavioral shift toward a different ecological niche.[14]

Gloger's rule states that within a species of endotherms, more heavily pigmented forms tend to be found in more humid environments, e.g. near the equator. It was named after the zoologist Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger, who described it in 1833.[15][16]

Haldane's rule states that if in a species hybrid only one sex is sterile, that sex is usually the heterogametic sex. The heterogametic sex is the one with two different sex chromosomes; in mammals, this is the male, with XY chromosomes. It is named after J.B.S. Haldane.[17]

Hennig's progression rule states that when considering a group of species in cladistics, the species with the most primitive characters are found within the earliest part of the area, which will be the center of origin of that group. It is named for Willi Hennig, who devised the rule.[18][19]

Jordan's rule states that there is an inverse relationship between water temperature and meristic characteristics such as the number of fin rays, vertebrae, or scale numbers, which are seen to increase with decreasing temperature. It is named after the father of American ichthyology, David Starr Jordan.[20]

Lack's principle matches clutch size to the largest number of young the parents can feed.

Lack's principle states that "the clutch size of each species of bird has been adapted by natural selection to correspond with the largest number of young for which the parents can, on average, provide enough food".[21]

Rapoport's rule states that the latitudinal ranges of plants and animals are generally smaller at lower latitudes than at higher latitudes. It was named after Eduardo H. Rapoport by G. C. Stevens in 1989.[22]

Rensch's rule states that across animal species within a lineage, sexual size dimorphism increases with body size when the male is the larger sex, and decreases as body size increases when the female is the larger sex. The rule applies in primates, pinnipeds (seals), and even-toed ungulates (such as cattle and deer).[23] It is named after Bernhard Rensch, who proposed it in 1950.[24]

Thorson's rule states that benthic marine invertebrates at low latitudes tend to produce large numbers of eggs developing to pelagic (often planktotrophic [plankton-feeding]) and widely dispersing larvae, whereas at high latitudes such organisms tend to produce fewer and larger lecithotrophic (yolk-feeding) eggs and larger offspring, often by viviparity or ovoviviparity, which are often brooded.[25] It was named after Gunnar Thorson by S. A. Mileikovsky in 1971.[26]

Van Valen's law states that the probability of extinction for species and higher taxa (such as families and orders) is constant for each group over time; groups grow neither more resistant nor more vulnerable to extinction, however old their lineage is. It is named for the evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen.[27]

von Baer's laws state that embryos start from a common form and develop into increasingly specialised forms, so that the diversification of embryonic form mirrors the taxonomic and phylogenetic tree. Therefore, all animals in a phylum share a similar early embryo; animals in smaller taxa (classes, orders, families, genera, species) share later and later embryonic stages. This was in sharp contrast to the recapitulation theory of Johann Friedrich Meckel (and later of Ernst Haeckel), which claimed that embryos went through stages resembling adult organisms from successive stages of the scala naturae from supposedly lowest to highest levels of organisation.[28][29][30]

Williston's law states that parts in an organism tend to become reduced in number and greatly specialized in function. He had studied the dentition of vertebrates, and noted that where ancient animals had mouths with differing kinds of teeth, modern carnivores had incisors and canines specialized for tearing and cutting flesh, while modern herbivores had large molars specialized for grinding tough plant materials.[31]

Validity

There is some scepticism among biogeographers about the usefulness of general rules. For example, J.C. Briggs, in his 1987 book Biogeography and Plate Tectonics, comments that while Willi Hennig's rules on cladistics "have generally been helpful", his progression rule is "suspect".[18]

References

  1. ↑ Allen, Joel Asaph (1877). "The influence of Physical conditions in the genesis of species". Radical Review. 1: 108–140.
  2. ↑ Lopez, Barry Holstun (1986). Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape. Scribner. ISBN 0-684-18578-4.
  3. ↑ Olalla-Tárraga, Miguel Á.; Rodríguez, Miguel Á.; Hawkins, Bradford A. (2006). "Broad-scale patterns of body size in squamate reptiles of Europe and North America". Journal of Biogeography. 33 (5): 781–793. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01435.x.
  4. ↑ Timofeev, S. F. (2001). "Bergmann’s Principle and Deep-Water Gigantism in Marine Crustaceans". Biology Bulletin (Russian version, Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Biologicheskaya). 28 (6): 646–650 (Russian version, 764–768). doi:10.1023/A:1012336823275. Retrieved 2012-02-08. (Subscription required (help)).
  5. ↑ Meiri, S.; Dayan, T. (2003-03-20). "On the validity of Bergmann's rule". Journal of Biogeography. 30 (3): 331–351. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2003.00837.x. (Subscription required (help)).
  6. ↑ Ashton, Kyle G.; Tracy, Mark C.; Queiroz, Alan de (October 2000). "Is Bergmann's Rule Valid for Mammals?". The American Naturalist. 156 (4): 390–415. JSTOR 10.1086/303400. doi:10.1086/303400.
  7. ↑ Millien, Virginie; Lyons, S. Kathleen; Olson, Link; et al. (May 23, 2006). "Ecotypic variation in the context of global climate change: Revisiting the rules". Ecology Letters. 9 (7): 853–869. doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00928.x.
  8. ↑ Rensch, B. (September 1948). "Histological Changes Correlated with Evolutionary Changes of Body Size". Evolution. 2 (3): 218–230. JSTOR 2405381. doi:10.2307/2405381.
  9. ↑ Stanley, S. M. (March 1973). "An Explanation for Cope's Rule". Evolution. 27 (1): 1–26. JSTOR 2407115. doi:10.2307/2407115.
  10. ↑ Juan Luis Arsuaga, Andy Klatt, The Neanderthal's Necklace: In Search of the First Thinkers, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2004, ISBN 1-56858-303-6, ISBN 978-1-56858-303-7, p. 199.
  11. ↑ Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu, Patrick Gries, Evolution, Seven Stories Press, 2007, ISBN 1-58322-784-9, ISBN 978-1-58322-784-8, p 42.
  12. ↑ Lomolino, Mark V. (February 1985). "Body Size of Mammals on Islands: The Island Rule Reexamined". The American Naturalist. 125 (2): 310–316. JSTOR 2461638. doi:10.1086/284343.
  13. ↑ Foster, J.B. (1964). "The evolution of mammals on islands". Nature. 202 (4929): 234–235. Bibcode:1964Natur.202..234F. doi:10.1038/202234a0.
  14. ↑ Garrett Hardin (1960). "The competitive exclusion principle" (PDF). Science. 131 (3409): 1292–1297. PMID 14399717. doi:10.1126/science.131.3409.1292.
  15. ↑ Gloger, Constantin Wilhelm Lambert (1833). "5. Abänderungsweise der einzelnen, einer Veränderung durch das Klima unterworfenen Farben". Das Abändern der Vögel durch Einfluss des Klimas [The Evolution of Birds Through the Impact of Climate] (in German). Breslau: August Schulz. pp. 11–24. ISBN 978-3-8364-2744-9. OCLC 166097356.
  16. ↑ Zink, R.M.; Remsen, J.V. (1986). "Evolutionary processes and patterns of geographic variation in birds". Current Ornithology. 4: 1–69.
  17. ↑ Turelli, M.; Orr, H. A. The Dominance Theory of Haldane's Rule Genetics 1995 May; 140(1): 389–402.
  18. 1 2 Briggs, J.C. (1987). Biogeography and Plate Tectonics. Elsevier. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-08-086851-6.
  19. ↑ "Centers of Origin, Vicariance Biogeography". The University of Arizona Geosciences. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  20. ↑ McDowall, R. M. (March 2008). "Jordan’s and other ecogeographical rules, and the vertebral number in fishes". Journal of Biogeography. 35 (3): 501–508. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2007.01823.x.
  21. ↑ Lack, David (1954). The regulation of animal numbers. Clarendon Press.
  22. ↑ Stevens, G. C. (1989). The latitudinal gradients in geographical range: how so many species co-exist in the tropics. American Naturalist 133, 240–256.
  23. ↑ Fairbairn, D.J. (1997). "Allometry for Sexual Size Dimorphism: Pattern and Process in the Coevolution of Body Size in Males and Females". Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 28 (1): 659–687. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.28.1.659.
  24. ↑ Rensch, B. (1950). Die Abhängigkeit der relativen Sexualdifferenz von der Körpergrösse. Bonner Zoologische Beiträge 1:58-69.
  25. ↑ Thorson, G. 1957 Bottom communities (sublittoral or shallow shelf). In "Treatise on Marine Ecology and Palaeoecology" (Ed J.W. Hedgpeth) pp. 461-534. Geological Society of America.
  26. ↑ Mileikovsky, S. A. 1971. Types of larval development in marine bottom invertebrates, their distribution and ecological significance: a reevaluation. Marine Biology 19: 193-213
  27. ↑ "Leigh Van Valen, evolutionary theorist and paleobiology pioneer, 1935-2010". University of Chicago. 20 October 2010.
  28. ↑ Opitz, John M.; Schultka, Rüdiger; Göbbel, Luminita (2006). "Meckel on developmental pathology". American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A. 140A (2): 115–128. doi:10.1002/ajmg.a.31043.
  29. ↑ Garstang, Walter (1922). "The Theory of Recapitulation: A Critical Re-statement of the Biogenetic Law". Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology. 35 (232): 81–101. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1922.tb00464.x.
  30. ↑ Lovtrup, Soren (1978). "On von Baerian and Haeckelian Recapitulation". Systematic Zoology. 27 (3): 348. doi:10.2307/2412887.
  31. ↑ Williston, Samuel Wendall (1914). Water Reptiles of the Past and Present. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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