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The fire of evolution: energy expenditure and ecology in primates and other endotherms.

Publication ,  Journal Article
McGrosky, A; Pontzer, H
Published in: The Journal of Experimental Biology
March 2023

Total energy expenditure (TEE) represents the total energy allocated to growth, reproduction and body maintenance, as well as the energy expended on physical activity. Early experimental work in animal energetics focused on the costs of specific tasks (basal metabolic rate, locomotion, reproduction), while determination of TEE was limited to estimates from activity budgets or measurements of subjects confined to metabolic chambers. Advances in recent decades have enabled measures of TEE in free-living animals, challenging traditional additive approaches to understanding animal energy budgets. Variation in lifestyle and activity level can impact individuals' TEE on short time scales, but interspecific differences in TEE are largely shaped by evolution. Here, we review work on energy expenditure across the animal kingdom, with a particular focus on endotherms, and examine recent advances in primate energetics. Relative to other placental mammals, primates have low TEE, which may drive their slow pace of life and be an evolved response to the challenges presented by their ecologies and environments. TEE variation among hominoid primates appears to reflect adaptive shifts in energy throughput and allocation in response to ecological pressures. As the taxonomic breadth and depth of TEE data expand, we will be able to test additional hypotheses about how energy budgets are shaped by environmental pressures and explore the more proximal mechanisms that drive intra-specific variation in energy expenditure.

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Published In

The Journal of Experimental Biology

DOI

EISSN

1477-9145

ISSN

0022-0949

Publication Date

March 2023

Volume

226

Issue

5

Start / End Page

jeb245272

Related Subject Headings

  • Primates
  • Pregnancy
  • Placenta
  • Physiology
  • Hominidae
  • Female
  • Eutheria
  • Energy Metabolism
  • Basal Metabolism
  • Animals
 

Citation

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McGrosky, A., & Pontzer, H. (2023). The fire of evolution: energy expenditure and ecology in primates and other endotherms. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 226(5), jeb245272. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245272
McGrosky, Amanda, and Herman Pontzer. “The fire of evolution: energy expenditure and ecology in primates and other endotherms.The Journal of Experimental Biology 226, no. 5 (March 2023): jeb245272. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245272.
McGrosky A, Pontzer H. The fire of evolution: energy expenditure and ecology in primates and other endotherms. The Journal of Experimental Biology. 2023 Mar;226(5):jeb245272.
McGrosky, Amanda, and Herman Pontzer. “The fire of evolution: energy expenditure and ecology in primates and other endotherms.The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 226, no. 5, Mar. 2023, p. jeb245272. Epmc, doi:10.1242/jeb.245272.
McGrosky A, Pontzer H. The fire of evolution: energy expenditure and ecology in primates and other endotherms. The Journal of Experimental Biology. 2023 Mar;226(5):jeb245272.
Journal cover image

Published In

The Journal of Experimental Biology

DOI

EISSN

1477-9145

ISSN

0022-0949

Publication Date

March 2023

Volume

226

Issue

5

Start / End Page

jeb245272

Related Subject Headings

  • Primates
  • Pregnancy
  • Placenta
  • Physiology
  • Hominidae
  • Female
  • Eutheria
  • Energy Metabolism
  • Basal Metabolism
  • Animals