Animal body size : linking pattern and process across space, time, and taxonomic group / edited by Felisa A. Smith and S. Kathleen Lyons.

Includes bibliographies and index.

On being the right size: the importance of size to life history, ecology and evolution / Felisa A. Smith and S. Kathleen Lyons -- Body size patterns across space and time. Macroecological patterns in insect body size / Kevin J. Gaston and Steven L. Chown ; Latitudinal variation of body size in land snail populations and communities / Jeffrey C. Nekola, Gary M. Barker, Robert A.D. Cameron, and Beata M. Pokryszko ; Geographic variation in body size distributions of continental avifauna / Brian A. Maurer ; Body mass evolution in bats / Kamran Safi, Shai Meiri, and Kate E. Jones ; Macroecological patterns of body size in mammals across time and space / S. Kathleen Lyons and Felisa A. Smith -- Mechanisms and consequences underlying body size distributional patterns. Using size distributions to understand the role of body size in mammalian community assembly / S.K. Morgan Ernest ; Processes responsible for patterns in body mass distribution / Brian A. Maurer and Pablo A. Marquet -- The influence of flight on patterns of body size diversity and heritability / Felisa A. Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, Kate E. Jones, Brian A. Maurer, and James H. Brown ; On body size and life history of mammals / James H. Brown, Astrid Kodric-Brown, and Richard M. Sibly -- Conclusion. The way forward / Felisa A. Smith and S. Kathleen Lyons.

Galileo wrote that "nature cannot produce a horse as large as twenty ordinary horses or a giant ten times taller than an ordinary man unless by miracle or by greatly altering the proportions of his limbs and especially of his bones"--A statement that wonderfully captures a long-standing scientific fascination with body size. Why are organisms the size that they are? And what determines their optimum size? This volume explores animal body size from a macroecological perspective, examining species, populations, and other large groups of animals in order to uncover the patterns and causal mechanisms of body size throughout time and across the globe. The chapters represent diverse scientific perspectives and are divided into two sections. The first includes chapters on insects, snails, birds, bats, and terrestrial mammals and discusses the body size patterns of these various organisms. The second examines some of the factors behind, and consequences of, body size patterns and includes chapters on community assembly, body mass distribution, life history, and the influence of flight on body size

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