Universal Model of Ontogenetic Growth: Substantiation and Development of Schmalhausen's Model

Abstract

A hypothesis of singleness of the growth equation for biological objects on different organizational levels and dimensional analysis are used in order to substantiate Schmalhausen's model of ontogenetic growth (the mass of a growing organism is a power function of time). It is stated that such a model is valid only in the initial period of growth. For the whole period of growth, a generalization of Schmalhausen's model is advanced; it provides the same accuracy as previously known models of quantitative description of kinetic curves. Within the scope of the developed model, a number of interesting results related to an allometry and biological time are obtained.