A universal power law for modelling the growth and form of teeth, claws, horns, thorns, beaks, and shells.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A major goal of evolutionary developmental biology is to discover general models and mechanisms that create the phenotypes of organisms. However, universal models of such fundamental growth and form are rare, presumably due to the limited number of physical laws and biological processes that influence growth. One such model is the logarithmic spiral, which has been purported to explain the growth of biological structures such as teeth, claws, horns, and beaks. However, the logarithmic spiral only describes the path of the structure through space, and cannot generate these shapes.

Results

Here we show a new universal model based on a power law between the radius of the structure and its length, which generates a shape called a 'power cone'. We describe the underlyi

SUBMITTER: Evans AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8008625 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature