BODY WEIGHT, CELL SURFACE, AND METABOLIC RATE IN ANURAN AMPHIBIA

¹ Departmnet of Zoology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.

1. A consideration of cell surface was proposed as an approach to the general problem of body size and metabolic rate in the animal kingdom.

2. Experimental techniques were described concerned with the quantitative measurement of standard metabolic rate and muscle cell surface in frogs ranging from 1 to 350 grams adult weight.

3. It was found that both metabolic rate and muscle surface concentration vary directly as W- for each species considered separately.

4. In the genus Rana, it was assumed that buccopharyngeal frequencies represented general levels of central nervous activity. By further assuming a respiratory system dependent on muscle cell surface, a simultaneous treatment of neural activity and muscle surface was suggested as a possible mechanism of control of in vivo respiration.

5. The proposed mechanism was considered in reference to temperature, neural activity, and the respiratory performance of excised tissues and the intact animal.

6. Cell surface was considered as it might relate to metabolic performance throughout ontogeny.

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