Talk:Allen's rule

Biology Mid‑importance

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Animals Mid‑importance

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Clarifications[edit]

It is important to remember that exposure of exterior surface area is only one of many mechanisms by which humans retain or dispose of body heat. The following mechanisms are also very important:

Sweating Shivering Skin colour Behaviour

Note that for the first three of these mechanisms, Allen's rule will directly effect the outcome anyway. So I don't think this section adds anything at all!Ga rr ie 21:17, 3 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Non-human examples[edit]

Not sure why human racial differences are the only examples given here. Philwelch (talk) 17:55, 19 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly, racial variations may be a bad example to use. The pygmies(or bushmen) are a well known african tribe, the adults usually dont grow beyond 4.5 ft. I really dont see how allens rule would explain that. ~Gigi~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.191.250.153 (talk) 14:39, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Concrete evidence for the rule has been hard to come by until recently. A paper was published last year that seemed to show the rule was true for related seabirds. Nudds & Oswald (2007) An interspecific test of allen's rule: evolutionary implications for endothermic species". Evolution Volume 61 Issue 12, Pages 2839 - 2848. Sabine's Sunbird talk 02:44, 30 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

accuracy[edit]

How accurate is this 'rule' w.r.t humans? Isn't picking eskimos just being selective particularly since there are so few of them. There are plenty of ethnicities from hot climates in africa that are short and stocky.Oxr033 (talk) 10:55, 5 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Allen's rule can't explain all[edit]

Among felines, lynxes have long legs and very short tails; snow leopards have very long tails and moderately short legs in relation to their length. Both are well adapted to cold climates. I guess the explanation for these is that thermoregulation isn't the only thing driving the evolution of limb lengths ... --Tobias b köhler (talk) 09:40, 2 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]