Elephants, bacteria, and trees may not have much in common besides their status as living organisms that consume energy to power their basic life functions, but a new study has found a remarkable similarity within that commonality. A team of researchers examined over 3,000 organisms from different branches of the tree of life and found that while creatures may vary enormously in size and complexity, their metabolisms use energy at roughly the same rate.
The researchers examined the at-rest metabolisms of all the species and compared their energy usage, pound for pound. While there were some outliers, most species fell within a narrow range, using between 1 and 10 watts per kilogram of biomass. Study coauthor Anastassia Makarieva says that since such a large number of species falls within this narrow range, she hypothesises there may be an optimum metabolic rate for all organisms. “Organisms that lie close to this value may be the fittest to survive,” she says [New Scientist].
