“…Any single best-fit line that is determined yields , 1997), and it has even been suspected that there might be a connection with the scaling exponent value of α=0.75 for basal metabolic rate in that the two exponents combined could result in a 'metabolic lifetime' with a scaling exponent of α=1. However, all of this ignores the long-established distinction between mammal species that give birth to multiple litters of poorly developed altricial neonates and those that give birth to (typically) single, well-developed precocial neonates (Portmann, 1938(Portmann, , 1939(Portmann, , 1965. It should be patently obvious that, other things being equal, development of an altricial neonate should require less time than development of a precocial neonate.…”