SIZE, SHAPE AND LIFE, Part I
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SIZE, SHAPE AND LIFE, Part I
All the many legions of creatures that inhabit our Planet undergo slow but continuous transformation under the implacable domination of the laws of Physics and Biology. Far from being a question of whim or mere chance, the shape and size of living beings are their responses to biological conditions.
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- Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are like.
- Between a coral and a shark, there is a tremendous evolutionary leap.
- Corals and their characteristics
- Sharks
- Sometimes the way in which sensory organs are distributed on the head can tell us about an animal’s feeding habits. Carnivorous predators. Herbivorous prey.
- In seas, an important conditioner is the depth
- When size does matter
- Size is sometimes related to the temperature of the inhabited spot.
- Polar bears and brown bears.
- The maximum size for land animals can be explained by weight and mobility.
- Hydrostatic force compensates gravity and the physical limitations of size are less rigid.
- Copying nature
- Some of the shapes animals adopt are so successful, we humans even copy them in the designs of some of our machines and inventions.
- Birds have taken millions of years to improve their flight.
- The design of torpedoes reminds us of dolphins.. Dozens of similar examples exist.
- The permanent and ruthless struggle to survive and leave descendants, together with the whim of mutation, natural selection and the laws of physics have resulted in the extraordinary variety of shapes and sizes that living beings have.
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