Scientists Found a Paradox in Evolution—and It May Become the Next Rule of Biology

By Darren Orf – Popular Mechanics

Across the sciences, rules and laws help us make sense of the world around us, whether applied to cosmic scales or subatomic ones. However, in the biological world, things are a bit more complicated. That’s because nature is often full of biological exceptions, and so “rules of biology” are also considered broad generalizations rather than absolute facts that explain and govern all known life.

Some of these broad generalizations include things like Allen’s Law, which dictates that body shapes in endotherms (warm-blooded animals) adapt to climatic conditions—short and stocky helps retain heat in cold climates, while tall and lanky helps dissipate heat in warmer ones. Another “law,” known as Bergmann’s rule, states that species of a broadly distributed clade tend to be larger in colder climates and smaller in warmer ones (though of course, as with most biological rules, exceptions apply).