Bergmann's rule is a "just-so" story of human body size

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5219653
AutoresB Bogin (0000-0002-1688-0087, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, autor de correspondencia), Michael Hermanussen (0000-0003-4037-1597), Christiane Scheffler (0000-0003-1954-7578, University of Potsdam)
Año2022
Volumen41
Número1
Páginas15-15
Fecha de publicación2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of PHYSIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1880-6791 • E-ISSN: 1880-6805
EditorialSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1186/s40101-022-00287-z
PMID35414036
OpenAlexW4223626777
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas51

Carl Bergmann was an astute naturalist and physiologist. His ideas about animal size and shape were important advances in the pre-Darwinian nineteenth century. Bergmann's rule claims that that in cold climates, large body mass increases the ratio of volume-to-surface area and provides for maximum metabolic heat retention in mammals and birds. Conversely, in warmer temperatures, smaller body mass increases surface area relative to volume and allows for greater heat loss. For humans, we now know that body size and shape are regulated more by social-economic-political-emotional (SEPE) factors as well as nutrition-infection interactions. Temperature has virtually no effect. Bergmann's rule is a "just-so" story and should be relegated to teaching and scholarship about the history of science. That "rule" is no longer acceptable science and has nothing to tell us about physiological anthropology

Bergmann's rule · Biology · Brain size · Darwinism · Epistemology · Geography · Naturalism · Nothing · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Zoology · Adipose Tissue and Metabolism · Anthropology · Diet and metabolism studies · Medicine · Philosophy · Thermoregulation and physiological responses · Ecology