PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF SURFACE-AREAS OF MAMMALS

Traditionally, aquatic and terrestrial mammals have been believed to d iffer in the allometric relationship of surface area and body mass. Su ch differences commonly are assumed to be of adaptive significance. Ho wever, no previous analyses have explicitly compared these groups or a ccounted for bias resulting from phylogenetic relationships. I used Mo nte Carlo simulations to evaluate the relationship of surface area to body mass of 56 aquatic and terrestrial species of mammals. These proc edures specifically incorporate the phylogenetic structure of the data . There was no support for the assumption of differing mass-specific s urface areas of marine mammals and terrestrial mammals.