Mechanism
A contributing factor to Allen's Rule may be that the growth of cartilage is partly dependent on temperature. "Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have shown that temperature can directly affect cartilage growth, providing a biological explanation for this rule. It was a simple experiment. They raised mice either at 2 degrees, 26 degrees or 48 degrees Celsius and then measured their tails and ears. They found that they were significantly shorter in the mice raised in the cold, compared with the mice raised at warmer temperatures, even though their overall bodyweights were the same. They found that the mice raised in the cold had less blood flow in their extremities. And when they tried growing bone samples at different temperatures, the researchers found that the samples grown in warmer temperatures had significantly more cartilage growth than those grown in colder temperatures."
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