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Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2004 May 7;271(Suppl 4):S219–S221. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2003.0145

A general rule for the dependence of developmental rate on temperature in ectothermic animals.

Vojtech Jarosík 1, Lukás Kratochvíl 1, Alois Honek 1, Anthony F G Dixon 1
PMCID: PMC1810016  PMID: 15252989

Abstract

In animals that do not regulate their body temperature by the production of heat, the proportion of the total developmental time spent in a particular developmental stage does not change with temperature. In the quasi-linear region of the relationship between developmental rate and temperature, all of the developmental stages appear to have the same species-specific lower developmental threshold. This trait, which is called developmental isomorphy, constrains developmental adaptations of ectotherms to their environments and facilitates the precise timing of life-history events.

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Selected References

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Supplementary Materials

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15252989supp.pdf (883.4KB, pdf)

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