Evolutionary physiology
Encyclopedia
Evolutionary physiology is the study of physiological evolution, which is to say, the manner in which the functional characteristics of individuals in a population of organisms have responded to selection across multiple generations during the history of the population.
It is a subdiscipline of both physiology
and evolutionary biology. Practitioners in this field come from a variety of backgrounds, including physiology, evolutionary biology, ecology
and genetics
.
Accordingly, the range of phenotypes studied by evolutionary physiologists is broad, including but not limited to life history
, behavior, whole-organism performance, functional morphology, biomechanics
, anatomy
, classical physiology, endocrinology
, biochemistry
, and molecular evolution
. It is closely related to comparative physiology
and environmental physiology, and its findings are a major concern of evolutionary medicine
.
s (see physiology of dinosaurs) and mammal-like reptiles.
This period was followed by attempts in the early 1980s to integrate quantitative genetics
into evolutionary biology, which had spill-over effects on other fields, such as behavioral ecology
and ecophysiology
. In the mid- to late-1980s, phylogenetic comparative methods
started to become popular in many fields, including physiological ecology and comparative physiology
. An 1987 volume titled "New Directions in Ecological Physiology" had little ecology but a considerable emphasis on evolutionary topics. It generated vigorous debate, and within a few years the National Science Foundation
had developed a panel titled Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology.
Shortly thereafter, selection experiments and experimental evolution
became increasingly common in evolutionary physiology. Most recently, "macrophysiology" has emerged as a subdiscipline, in which practitioners attempt to identify large-scale patterns in physiological traits (e.g., patterns of covariation with latitude
) and their ecological implications.
).
. A number of scientific societies feature sections that encompass evolutionary physiology, including:
It is a subdiscipline of both physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
and evolutionary biology. Practitioners in this field come from a variety of backgrounds, including physiology, evolutionary biology, ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
.
Accordingly, the range of phenotypes studied by evolutionary physiologists is broad, including but not limited to life history
Life history theory
Life history theory posits that the schedule and duration of key events in an organism's lifetime are shaped by natural selection to produce the largest possible number of surviving offspring...
, behavior, whole-organism performance, functional morphology, biomechanics
Biomechanics
Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Perhaps one of the best definitions was provided by Herbert Hatze in 1974: "Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of...
, anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
, classical physiology, endocrinology
Endocrinology
Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...
, biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
, and molecular evolution
Molecular evolution
Molecular evolution is in part a process of evolution at the scale of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Molecular evolution emerged as a scientific field in the 1960s as researchers from molecular biology, evolutionary biology and population genetics sought to understand recent discoveries on the structure...
. It is closely related to comparative physiology
Comparative physiology
Comparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many universities offer undergraduate courses that cover...
and environmental physiology, and its findings are a major concern of evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease. It provides a complementary scientific approach to the present mechanistic explanations that dominate medical science, and particularly modern medical education...
.
History
As the name implies, evolutionary physiology is the product of what was at one time two distinct scientific disciplines. According to Garland and Carter, evolutionary physiology arose in the late 1970s, following "heated" debates concerning the metabolic and thermoregulatory status of dinosaurDinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s (see physiology of dinosaurs) and mammal-like reptiles.
This period was followed by attempts in the early 1980s to integrate quantitative genetics
Quantitative genetics
Quantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits and their underlying mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effects of one or more genes and the environments in which they are expressed give rise to continuous distributions of...
into evolutionary biology, which had spill-over effects on other fields, such as behavioral ecology
Behavioral ecology
Behavioral ecology, or ethoecology, is the study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior, and the roles of behavior in enabling an animal to adapt to its environment...
and ecophysiology
Ecophysiology
Ecophysiology or environmental physiology is a biological discipline which studies the adaptation of organism's physiology to environmental conditions...
. In the mid- to late-1980s, phylogenetic comparative methods
Phylogenetic comparative methods
Phylogenetic comparative methods use information on the evolutionary relationships of organisms to compare species...
started to become popular in many fields, including physiological ecology and comparative physiology
Comparative physiology
Comparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many universities offer undergraduate courses that cover...
. An 1987 volume titled "New Directions in Ecological Physiology" had little ecology but a considerable emphasis on evolutionary topics. It generated vigorous debate, and within a few years the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
had developed a panel titled Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology.
Shortly thereafter, selection experiments and experimental evolution
Experimental evolution
In evolutionary and experimental biology, the field of experimental evolution is concerned with testing hypotheses and theories of evolution by use of controlled experiments. Evolution may be observed in the laboratory as populations adapt to new environmental conditions and/or change by such...
became increasingly common in evolutionary physiology. Most recently, "macrophysiology" has emerged as a subdiscipline, in which practitioners attempt to identify large-scale patterns in physiological traits (e.g., patterns of covariation with latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
) and their ecological implications.
Emergent Properties of Evolutionary Physiology
As a hybrid scientific discipline, evolutionary physiology provides some unique perspectives. For example, an understanding of physiological mechanisms can help in determining whether a particular pattern of phenotypic variation or covariation (such as an allometric relationship) represents what could possibly exist or just what selection has allowed. Similarly, a thorough knowledge of physiological mechanisms can greatly enhance understanding of possible reasons for evolutionary correlations and constraints than is possible for many of the traits typically studied by evolutionary biologists (such as morphologyMorphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
).
Areas of Research
Important areas of current research include:- Organismal performance as a central phenotypePhenotypeA phenotype is an organism's observable characteristics or traits: such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, behavior, and products of behavior...
(e.g., measures of speed or stamina in animal locomotionAnimal locomotionAnimal locomotion, which is the act of self-propulsion by an animal, has many manifestations, including running, swimming, jumping and flying. Animals move for a variety of reasons, such as to find food, a mate, or a suitable microhabitat, and to escape predators...
) - Role of behaviorBehaviorBehavior or behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment...
in physiological evolution - Physiological and endocrinological basis of variation in life historyBiological life cycleA life cycle is a period involving all different generations of a species succeeding each other through means of reproduction, whether through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction...
traits (e.g., clutch size) - Functional significance of molecular evolutionMolecular evolutionMolecular evolution is in part a process of evolution at the scale of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Molecular evolution emerged as a scientific field in the 1960s as researchers from molecular biology, evolutionary biology and population genetics sought to understand recent discoveries on the structure...
- Extent to which species differences are adaptive
- Physiological underpinnings of limits to geographic ranges
- Role of sexual selectionSexual selectionSexual selection, a concept introduced by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, is a significant element of his theory of natural selection...
in shaping physiological evolution - Magnitude of "phylogenetic signal" in physiological traits
- Role of pathogenPathogenA pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...
s and parasitesParasitismParasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
in physiological evolution and immunityImmunity (medical)Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide... - Application of optimality modeling to elucidate the degree of adaptation
- Role of phenotypic plasticityPhenotypic plasticityPhenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
in accounting for species differences - Mechanistic basis of trade-offTrade-offA trade-off is a situation that involves losing one quality or aspect of something in return for gaining another quality or aspect...
s and constraints on evolution (e.g., putative Carrier's constraintCarrier's constraintCarrier's constraint is the observation that air-breathing vertebrates which have two lungs and flex their bodies sideways during locomotion find it very difficult to move and breathe at the same time, because:...
on running and breathing) - Limits on sustained metabolic rate
- Origin of allometric scaling relations or allometric laws (and the so-called metabolic theory of ecologyMetabolic theory of ecologyThe metabolic theory of ecology is an extension of Kleiber's law and posits that the metabolic rate of organisms is the fundamental biological rate that governs most observed patterns in ecology....
) - Individual variation (see also Individual differences psychologyIndividual differences psychologyThe science of psychology studies people at three levels of focus captured by the well-known quotation: “Every man is in certain respects like all other men, like some other men, like no other man" ....
) - Functional significance of biochemical polymorphismsPolymorphism (biology)Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
- Analysis of physiological variation via quantitative geneticsQuantitative geneticsQuantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits and their underlying mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effects of one or more genes and the environments in which they are expressed give rise to continuous distributions of...
- Paleophysiology and the evolution of endothermy
- HumanHumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
adaptational physiologyPhysiologyPhysiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or... - Darwinian medicine
- Evolution of dietary antioxidants
Techniques
- Artificial selectionArtificial selectionArtificial selection describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. The term was utilized by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive...
and experimental evolutionExperimental evolutionIn evolutionary and experimental biology, the field of experimental evolution is concerned with testing hypotheses and theories of evolution by use of controlled experiments. Evolution may be observed in the laboratory as populations adapt to new environmental conditions and/or change by such...
mouse wheel running video - Genetic analysesGeneticsGenetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
and manipulationsGenetic engineeringGenetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest... - Measurement of selection in the wild
- Phenotypic plasticityPhenotypic plasticityPhenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
and manipulation - Phylogenetically based comparisonsPhylogenetic comparative methodsPhylogenetic comparative methods use information on the evolutionary relationships of organisms to compare species...
- Doubly labeled water measurements of free-living energy demands of animals
Funding and Societies
In the United States, research in evolutionary physiology is funded mainly by the National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
. A number of scientific societies feature sections that encompass evolutionary physiology, including:
- American Physiological Society "integrating the life sciences from molecule to organism"
- Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
- Society for Experimental BiologySociety for Experimental BiologyThe Society for Experimental Biology is a learned society which was established in 1923 at Birkbeck College in London to “promote the art and science of experimental biology in all its branches”. The Society has an international membership of approximately 2000 biological researchers, teachers and...
Some journals that frequently publish articles in evolutionary physiology
- American NaturalistAmerican NaturalistThe American Naturalist is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1867. It is published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the American Society of Naturalists. The journal covers research in ecology, evolutionary biology, population, and integrative biology....
- Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology
- Ecology
- Evolution
- Functional Ecology
- Integrative and Comparative BiologyIntegrative and Comparative BiologyIntegrative and Comparative Biology is the scientific journal for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology . Prior to volume 42 , the journal was known as American Zoologist ....
- Journal of Comparative Physiology
- Journal of Evolutionary Biochemistry and Physiology
- Journal of Experimental Biology
- Physiological and Biochemical ZoologyPhysiological and Biochemical ZoologyPhysiological and Biochemical Zoology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. PBZ presents current research on the biochemistry, physiology, and genetics of animals...
See also
- Allometry
- Allometric law
- Beneficial acclimation hypothesisBeneficial acclimation hypothesisThe Beneficial Acclimation Hypothesis is the physiological hypothesis that acclimating to a particular environment provides an organism with advantages in that environment...
- Comparative physiologyComparative physiologyComparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many universities offer undergraduate courses that cover...
- Darwinian medicine
- Field metabolic rateField metabolic rateField metabolic rate refers to a measurement of the metabolic rate of a free-living animal in the wild.- Method :Measurement of the Field metabolic rate is made using the doubly labeled water method, although alternative techniques, such as monitoring heart rates, can also be used. The advantages...
- EcophysiologyEcophysiologyEcophysiology or environmental physiology is a biological discipline which studies the adaptation of organism's physiology to environmental conditions...
- Evolutionary neuroscienceEvolutionary neuroscienceEvolutionary neuroscience is an interdisciplinary scientific research field that studies the evolution of nervous systems. Evolutionary neuroscientists attempt to understand the evolution and natural history of nervous system structure and function. The field draws on concepts and findings from...
- Evolutionary psychologyEvolutionary psychologyEvolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional...
- Experimental evolutionExperimental evolutionIn evolutionary and experimental biology, the field of experimental evolution is concerned with testing hypotheses and theories of evolution by use of controlled experiments. Evolution may be observed in the laboratory as populations adapt to new environmental conditions and/or change by such...
- Human physiologyHuman physiologyHuman physiology is the science of the mechanical, physical, bioelectrical, and biochemical functions of humans in good health, their organs, and the cells of which they are composed. Physiology focuses principally at the level of organs and systems...
- I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and BiochemistryI. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and BiochemistryThe I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry is a facility in Saint Petersburg, Russia, dedicated to research in the fields of biochemistry and evolutionary physiology.- History :...
- Kleiber's lawKleiber's lawKleiber's law, named after Max Kleiber's biological work in the early 1930s, is the observation that, for the vast majority of animals, an animal's metabolic rate scales to the ¾ power of the animal's mass. Symbolically: if q0 is the animal's metabolic rate, and M the animal's mass, then Kleiber's...
- Krogh PrincipleKrogh PrincipleKrogh's principle states that "for such a large number of problems there will be some animal of choice, or a few such animals, on which it can be most conveniently studied." This concept is central to those disciplines of biology that rely on the comparative method, such as neuroethology,...
- John SpeakmanJohn SpeakmanProfessor John Speakman is a British biologist working at the University of Aberdeen, Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences. He directs the University's Energetics Research Group, which is one of the world's leading groups using doubly labeled water to investigate energy expenditure...
- Leon OrbeliLeon OrbeliLevon Orbeli was an Armenian physiologist active in the Russian SFSR. He was a member of the Academies of Science of USSR and Armenian SSR...
- Life history theoryLife history theoryLife history theory posits that the schedule and duration of key events in an organism's lifetime are shaped by natural selection to produce the largest possible number of surviving offspring...
- Metabolic theory of ecologyMetabolic theory of ecologyThe metabolic theory of ecology is an extension of Kleiber's law and posits that the metabolic rate of organisms is the fundamental biological rate that governs most observed patterns in ecology....
- Peter HochachkaPeter HochachkaPeter William Hochachka, OC, FRSC was a Canadian professor and zoologist.Born in Bordenave, Alberta, the son of the very Rev. William and Pearl Hochachka, he obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Alberta in 1959. He received his M.Sc. from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D...
- Phenotypic plasticityPhenotypic plasticityPhenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
- Phylogenetic comparative methodsPhylogenetic comparative methodsPhylogenetic comparative methods use information on the evolutionary relationships of organisms to compare species...
- PhysiologyPhysiologyPhysiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
- Physiology of dinosaurs
- Raymond B. HueyRaymond B. HueyRaymond B. Huey is a biologist specializing in evolutionary physiology. He has taught at the University of Washington , and he earned his Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University under E. E. Williams. He is currently the chairman of the UW Biology Department.-Education:Huey earned his A.B...
- Theodore Garland, Jr.Theodore Garland, Jr.Theodore Garland, Jr. is a biologist specializing in evolutionary physiology. He was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for 14 years, served at the National Science Foundation for one year, and is currently Professor of Biology at the University of California, Riverside. He...
- Thrifty phenotypeThrifty phenotypeThe thrifty phenotype hypothesis says that reduced fetal growth is strongly associated with a number of chronic conditions later in life. This increased susceptibility results from adaptations made by the fetus in an environment limited in its supply of nutrients...
Further reading
- Angilletta, M. J., Jr., P. H. Niewiarowski, and C. A. Navas. 2002. The evolution of thermal physiology in ectotherms. Journal of Thermal Biology 27:249-268.
- Berenbrink, M., P. Koldkjær, O. Kepp, and A. R. Cossins. 2005. Evolution of oxygen secretion in fishes and the emergence of a complex physiological system. Science 307:1752-1757.
- Bradley, T. J., and W. Zamer. 1999. Introduction to the Symposium: What is evolutionary physiology? American Zoologist 39:321-322.
- Burggren, W. W., and W. E. Bemis. 1990. Studying physiological evolution: paradigms and pitfalls. Pages 191-238 in M. H. Nitecki, ed. Evolutionary innovations. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.
- Calow, P., ed. 1987. Evolutionary physiological ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 239 pp.
- Dean, A. M., and J. W. Thornton. 2007. Mechanistic approaches to the study of evolution: the functional synthesis. Nature Reviews Genetics 8:675-688. PDF
- Diamond, J. M. 1993. Evolutionary physiology. Pages 89–111 in C. A. R. Boyd and D. Noble, eds. The logic of life: the challenge of integrative physiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- Dudley, R. 2000. The biomechanics of insect flight: form, function, evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Dudley, R. 2000. The evolutionary physiology of animal flight: paleobiological and present perspectives. Annual Review of Physiology 62:135-155.
- Dudley, R., and C. Gans. 1991. A critique of symmorphosis and optimality models in physiology. Physiological Zoology 64:627-637.
- Feder, M. E., A. F. Bennett, and R. B. Huey. 2000. Evolutionary physiology. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31:315-341. PDF
- Gans, C. 1974. Biomechanics: an approach to vertebrate biology. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia. 261 pp.
- Garland, T., Jr., and S. C. Adolph. 1994. Why not to do two-species comparative studies: limitations on inferring adaptation. Physiological Zoology 67:797-828. PDF
- Garland, T., Jr., and P. A. Carter. 1994. Evolutionary physiology. Annual Review of Physiology 56:579-621. PDF
- Garland, T., Jr., and M. R. Rose, eds. 2009. Experimental Evolution: Concepts, Methods, and Applications of Selection Experiments. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. In press. PDF of Table of Contents
- Gilmour, K. M., R. W. Wilson, and K. A. Sloman. 2005. The integration of behaviour into comparative physiology. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 78:669-678.
- Hochachka, P. W., and G. N. Somero. 2002. Biochemical adaptation — mechanism and process in physiological evolution. Oxford University Press. 478 pp. Catalog listing
- Irschick, D. J., A. Herrel, B. Vanhooydonck, and R. Van Damme. 2007. A functional approach to sexual selection. Functional Ecology 21:621-626.
- Lailvaux, S. P., and D. J. Irschick. 2006. A functional perspective on sexual selection: insights and future prospects. Animal Behaviour 72:263-273.
- Mangum, C. P., and P. W. Hochachka. 1998. New directions in comparative physiology and biochemistry: mechanisms, adaptations, and evolution. Physiological Zoology 71:471-484.
- McKenzie, J. A., and P. Batterham. 1994. The genetic, molecular and phenotypic consequences of selection for insecticide resistance. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9:166-169.
- Mottishaw, P. D., S. J. Thornton, and P. W. Hochachka. 1999. The diving response mechanism and its surprising evolutionary path in seals and sealions. American Zoologist 39:434-450.
- Natochin, Y. V., and T. V. Chernigovskaya. 1997. Evolutionary physiology: History, principles. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 118:63-79.
- Nunn, C. L., and S. M Altizer. 2006. Infectious diseases in primates: behavior, ecology and evolution. Oxford University Press (Series in Ecology and Evolution). Catalog Listing
- Speakman, J.R. 2000. The cost of living: Field metabolic rates of small mammals. Advances in Ecological Research 30: 177-297
- Speakman, J.R. Krol, E. and Johnston, M.S. 2004. The functional significance of individual variations in BMR. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 77:900-915
- Speakman, J.R. 2005. Body size, energy metabolism and lifespan. Journal of Experimental biology 208:1717-30
- Speakman, J.R. 2008. The physiological cost of reproduction in small mammals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 363:375-398
- Spicer, J. I., and K. J. Gaston. 1999. Physiological diversity and its ecological implications. Blackwell Science, Oxford, U.K. x + 241 pp.
- Swallow, J. G., and T. Garland, Jr. 2005. Selection experiments as a tool in evolutionary and comparative physiology: insights into complex traits - An introduction to the symposium. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45:387-390. PDF
- Vogel, S. 2003. Comparative biomechanics: life's physical world. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford. xii + 580 pp. Catalog listing
- Young, R. L., and A. V. Badyaev. 2006. Evolutionary persistence of phenotypic integration: Influence of developmental and functional relationships on complex trait evolution. Evolution 60:1291-1299.
- Zera, A. J., and L. G. Harshman. 2001. The physiology of life history trade-offs. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32:95-127.