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Actually, Foster's rule indicates that predation being the main threat leads to smaller animals, while the restriction of resources being the main threat leads
by duaneb 10y ago
Actually, Foster's rule indicates that predation being the main threat leads to smaller animals, while the restriction of resources being the main threat leads to larger animals.
> The same reason why the average man was 5 inches shorter in 1750 than he is today.
This is more likely dietary changes than resource restriction—we may not have had industrial farming, but the average person wasn't starving either. But you need access to plentiful, high levels of protein to maximize your height advantage.
- omalleyt 10y agoFoster's rule is actually the reverse of that. Which can be seen intuitively because non-human predators pick off the weakest and smallest of the pack.
- taneq 10y agoThis depends on the size of the animals in question compared with the largest practical size for an animal in that environment. Large animals will get larger, because this improves their chance of fighting back against similar-sized predators (think lion vs. antelope). Small animals will get smaller, because this allows them to evade much-larger predators (think cat vs. mouse).
- jdmichal 10y ago> But you need access to plentiful, high levels of protein to maximize your height advantage. Hence a resource restriction?