Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/60822
Title: | Economies of parasite body size |
Contributor(s): | Leung, Tommy L F (author) |
Publication Date: | 2022 |
Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/60822 |
Abstract: | | Parasitism has independently evolved multiple times across the entire tree of life, and there are numerous parasitic representatives from every major eukaryote kingdom. In animals alone, parasitism has independently evolved at least 200 times. If there are any organisms that one might think would have access to limitless resources, it would be parasites. You would think that living in or on the body of their host, which serves as both a habitat and a food source, would provide parasites with bountiful resources to maximise every aspect of their existence, especially reproduction. But parasitism is not a loophole out of life history trade-offs. There is still a fi nite amount of resources that a parasite can obtain and allocate to its many needs. Living in a resource rich environment has allowed many parasites to grow to sizes that are of multiple orders of magnitude larger than their free-living relatives. But that does not mean that the underlying economy of nature and its limitations are inapplicable to parasites.
Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Source of Publication: | Current Biology, v.32, p. R645-R649 |
Publisher: | Cell Press |
Place of Publication: | United States of America |
ISSN: | 1879-0445 0960-9822 |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: | 310913 Invertebrate biology 319999 Other biological sciences not elsewhere classified |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: | 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
Peer Reviewed: | Yes |
HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal |
Appears in Collections: | Journal Article School of Environmental and Rural Science
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