Figure 8.

Allometric trends in ecophysiological traits associated with body mass among terrestrial mammals. Extreme differences exist in these traits between large and small species. For example, the African elephant and dikdik, a diminutive African antelope, differ by 1000‐fold in some traits. Because megafaunal species have greater locomotory efficiency, greater metabolic efficiency, increased resistance to starvation, longer life spans, and greater sensory ranges, they are able to exploit transient resource bonanzas widely scattered in space. These advantages come with trade‐offs including smaller population sizes, slower reproduction rates, and commitment to the life strategy of coping with local food shortages by dispersing to greener pastures.