Summary
In terms of incubation time and relative egg size, kiwis are exceptions to general avian allometric relationships. These extremes thus serve as a test of the eggshell model of Rahn et al.
Reduced permeability to water vapor exactly compensates for the prolonged incubation to preclude abnormal evaporative loss. Plateau O2 consumption \({\mathop V\limits^. _{{O_2}}}\) is similarly reduced by the apparent reduced porosity. This does not appear to cause hypoxic stress, because the resting \({\mathop V\limits^. _{{O_2}}}\) of chicks and adults is also reduced by the same factor, compared to predictions based on body-mass.
Thus the lower metabolic demands of kiwi tissue make it possible to have a prolonged embryonic development without excessive water loss from the egg.
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References
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© 1978 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Calder, W.A. (1978). The Kiwi: A Case of Compensating Divergences From Allometric Predictions. In: Piiper, J. (eds) Respiratory Function in Birds, Adult and Embryonic. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66894-4_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66894-4_33
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