A typical timber wolf has a mass of 40 kg, a typical jackrabbit a mass of 2.5 kg. Given the sc

step 1 From the graph given, the specific metabolic rate for the timber wolf of weight 40 kg is 1 .5 wa

A typical timber wolf has a mass of 40 kg, a typical...

A typical timber wolf has a mass of $40 \mathrm{~kg}$, a typical jackrabbit a mass of $2.5 \mathrm{~kg}$. Given the scaling law presented in the passage, we'd expect the specific metabolic rate of the jackrabbit to be higher by a factor of
A. 2
B. 4
C. 8
D. 16

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Key Concepts

Mass-Specific Metabolic Rate

This is the metabolic rate normalized by the organism's body mass. Because the overall metabolic rate scales with mass to a power less than one (commonly 3/4), the mass-specific metabolic rate scales as mass raised to the exponent of -1/4. This implies that smaller animals generally have a higher metabolic rate per unit mass compared to larger animals.

Power Law Exponents

The use of power law exponents is pivotal in understanding how one quantity changes in relation to another. In biological scaling, these exponents determine the rate at which metabolic processes adjust with body mass. The negative exponent in mass-specific metabolic rate (often -1/4) quantifies how the energy consumption per unit mass decreases as body mass increases.

Allometric Scaling

This concept describes how different biological variables change with the size of an organism. In the context of metabolism, it often refers to the power law relationship where metabolic rate scales as a power of an organism’s mass, typically with an exponent of 3/4. This means that as an organism's mass increases, its metabolic rate increases at a slower rate, reflecting underlying biological efficiencies.

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