Controlling crystal growth
1989; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 341; Issue: 6244 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1038/341689a0
ISSN1476-4687
Autores Tópico(s)Crystallization and Solubility Studies
Resumoenabling the body size to increase.But Tschanz's analysis, using different baselines, indicates that most of the growth of the neck of T. longobardicus during life can be explained as a strong and almost constant positive allometry: the neck length is linearly related to a power greater than unity of the animal's dimensions.Furthermore, a similar pattern of growth is found in the related but much smaller Macrocnemus bassanii.This needs confirmation from other species, but implies that the neck of T. longobardicus is as long as one would expect in any Tanystropheus of this size.Its great length in this species may therefore be an indirect consequence of the evolution of large size for some other reason, such as sexual competition or defence.Also, the positive allometry of neck growth in T. longobardicus seems to be weaker than in M. bassanii, hinting that this, the largest species of Tanystropheus, was approaching the longest viable length of neck -hardly surprising as the animal risked tipping over onto its nose every time it came out onto land.So, perhaps, T. longobardicus had a long neck simply because it was a big animal, and it survived in spite of it rather than because of it.0
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