Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pérez-Claros, J. A. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Allometric and fractal exponents indicate a connection between metabolism and complex septa in ammonites

¹ Juan A. Pérez-Claros. Departamento de Ecología y Geología (Área de Paleontología), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, Málaga 29071, Spain. Johnny{at}uma.es

Sutural perimeters of 301 Late Jurassic ammonites scale as the 3/8 power of phragmocone volume. This implies that septal surface grows as the power of body mass, the exponent of Kleiber's law (1932), one of the best-established empirical laws in biology, which is well known to be the scaling exponent of basal metabolic rate. Sutural complexity, as measured by fractal dimensions, emerges from the relationship between sutural perimeter and phragmocone volume, thus supporting the interpretations of septal folding as a mechanism for the increase in septal surface and as demanded by metabolic and physiologic processes (e.g., respiration or body chamber transport). The implications of these results strongly suggest that ammonite septa were involved in more than a simple structural support.