Bats have a metabolism that is 3 to 5 times higher than terrestrial mammals. Apparently, the OXPHOS pathway is different in bats. It is sufficiently different that it is one way you can differentiate a member of Chiroptera from the rest of mammals, since it seems to have arisen once and been relatively conserved. That difference is apparently the reason why bats are the only truly flying mammals. There's a paper on it here that I read and I am chewing on mentally.
However, in there are also two other tidbits.
Primates have a unique variant on the pathway...for supporting the ever enlarging brain. This was selected for pretty aggressively, I'd guess.
Apparently, there was something like that - but not the same - happening in Proboscidea for much the same reasons.
Fascinating.
However, in there are also two other tidbits.
Primates have a unique variant on the pathway...for supporting the ever enlarging brain. This was selected for pretty aggressively, I'd guess.
Apparently, there was something like that - but not the same - happening in Proboscidea for much the same reasons.
Fascinating.
3 comments:
What happens when you adjust for body size in comparing metabolism with other mammals?
Supposedly higher even so.
However, I've been scratching my head over that since some shrews have what I thought was a hyperactive metabolism.
Seeing as two of the three brainiest mammal groups have strange OXPHOS pathways compared to the mammalian "baseline", I wonder if the pathway in cetaceans is any different.
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