BERGMANN'S RULE


Meaning of BERGMANN'S RULE in English

in zoology, principle correlating external temperature and the ratio of body surface to weight in warm-blooded animals. Birds and mammals in cold regions have been observed to be bulkier than individuals of the same species in warm regions. The principle was proposed by Carl Bergmann, a 19th-century German biologist, to account for an adaptive mechanism to conserve or to radiate body heat, depending on climate.

Britannica English vocabulary.      Английский словарь Британика.