Abstract
I HAVE demonstrated that neonatal weight in 15 species of anthropoid primates scales at a power of maternal weight of 0.70 (ref. 1). Gould2 noted the closeness of this value to the standard metabolic exponent of 0.75, and asked if this similarity was more than coincidental. In an attempt to answer Gould's query, I have investigated the scaling of neonatal size in eutherian mammals and primates in particular.
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References
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LEUTENEGGER, W. Allometry of neonatal size in eutherian mammals. Nature 263, 229–230 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/263229a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/263229a0
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