Allen's rule is a biological rule posited by Joel Asaph Allen in 1877. It states that endotherms from colder climates usually have shorter limbs (or appendages) than the equivalent animals from warmer climates.
Read more about Allen's Rule: Theory, Mechanism, In Humans, Examples in The Animal Kingdom, Other Factors
Famous quotes containing the word rule:
“Charity is a cop-out so traditionally female in its apparent self-effacement that there seems resonant comfort in it. Were no longer supposed to serve the imaginations of men who have dominated us. We are to give up ourselves instead to those whose suffering is greater than our own. Looking down is just as distorting as looking up and as dangerous in perpetuating hierarchies.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)