Zotin A I, Lamprecht I
Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Developmental Biology, Laboratory of Developmental Biophysics, Moscow, Russia.
J Theor Biol. 1996 Jun 7;180(3):207-14. doi: 10.1006/jtbi.1996.0097.
By means of an allometric relation between the oxygen consumption rate and the body mass of an animal a metabolic coefficient is derived that can be used as a measure of standard metabolism in different animal species. This coefficient increased in the course of evolution corresponding to the time of appearance of each class of animal. It reached its highest values in Primates and passerine birds. A further increase across an energetic threshold was only possible with human civilization. A similar approach to evolution is performed through an encephalization coefficient showing that in all phases of evolution, species existed with a much larger relative brain volume than the other members of their class. These species might have established a non-human civilization on Earth if evolution would have taken another path. Finally, social activities of insects and the use of external energy sources by animals are discussed to show further implications of this bioenergetic approach to evolution.
通过动物耗氧率与体重之间的异速生长关系，推导出一个代谢系数，该系数可作为不同动物物种标准代谢的度量。在进化过程中，这个系数随着每一类动物的出现时间而增加。它在灵长类动物和雀形目鸟类中达到最高值。只有随着人类文明的发展，跨越一个能量阈值才有可能进一步增加。通过脑化系数对进化进行了类似的研究，结果表明在进化的所有阶段，都存在着一些物种，它们的相对脑容量比同纲的其他成员大得多。如果进化走另一条路，这些物种可能在地球上建立起非人类文明。最后，讨论了昆虫的社会活动以及动物对外部能源的利用，以展示这种生物能量方法对进化的进一步影响。
