Exaggerated male traits that have evolved under sexual selection include ornaments to attract mates and weapons to deter rivals. Data from studies of many such traits in diverse kinds of organisms show that they almost universally exhibit positive allometries. Both ornaments and weapons increase disproportionately with overall body size, resulting in scaling exponents within species that are co...

BACKGROUND An ecological flow network is a weighted directed graph in which the nodes are species, the edges are "who eats whom" relationships and the weights are rates of energy or nutrient transferred between species. Allometric scaling is a ubiquitous feature for flow systems such as river basins, vascular networks and food webs. METHODOLOGY The "ecological network analysis" can serve to r...

The bite force of the piranha (Serrasalmidae) has drawn considerable attention due to its ability effectively capture and masticate prey. Herein, we analyze theoretical anterior forces using a lever approach compare them in-vivo maximum forces. We provide mechanics analysis that explains scaling allometry (Foutput) with length fish (l), Foutput?l2.