Bergmann's Rule: The Relationship Between Animal Body Size and Climate Temperature

演化之聲
Mar 14
4 min read

Bergmann's rule is a biological pattern describing how body size in warm-blooded animals tends to vary with climate. According to this rule, individuals belonging to the same lineage of endothermic animals generally become larger as latitude or elevation increases. In other words, species inhabiting colder environments often possess larger bodies than their relatives living in warmer regions. A familiar example is the polar bear, which is substantially larger than other bears. Penguins show a similar trend: species living closer to polar regions tend to have greater body size. Even humans exhibit comparable geographic patterns in body size.