Abstract
Comparative Osteology: A Cross-Species Study of First Rib Parameters and Their Relation to Body Mass with Emphasis on the Woolly Mammoth
Highlights
Scaling addresses the structural and functional consequences of changes in size or scale among otherwise similar organisms
Measurements of first rib parameters were taken from the skeletons of a number of species housed in the Dept. of Animal and Veterinary Basic Sciences, or made available to the author through the kind assistance of Copenhagen Zoo, Scandinavian Animal Park Djursland, and Oxford University Museum
The measurements of Greater Length (GL) for the first rib of the species examined were found to be best fitted by the following equation; Equation 1: GL (c= m) 8.53 + 0.02236* Body Mass
Summary
Scaling addresses the structural and functional consequences of changes in size or scale among otherwise similar organisms. An amazing number of morphological and physiological variables can be scaled, relative to body size, according to the general allometric equation; y= a × X b [1]. To the best of the authors knowledge, Galileo Galilei in his volume Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (1637) was the first to postulate that the skeleton and bones of very large animals must be scaled out of proportion to their linear dimensions in order to support the weight of the animal, and that the weight increases with the third power of linear dimensions. One reaches a natural limit, as quite clearly the mass of an animal’s skeleton cannot increase out of proportion with body mass, at least not to the extent that the whole leg is comprised bone
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