This paper seeks to identify the factors which have the greatest effect on gas diffusion rates into animal burrows, and in turn on the maximum size of burrowing animals which may rely on simple burrow ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 107, No. 18 (May 4, 2010), pp. 8469-8474 (6 pages) For terrestrial animals and plants, a fundamental cost of ...

Dorit Hockman is in the Department of Human Biology, Division of Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa. This theory needs to be tested, but, without travelling back in ...

We explore the physical and structural challenges that face gas exchange surfaces in vertebrates and insects, by focusing on the role of the surfactant system. Pulmonary surfactant is a complex ...

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