Have you ever had days where you’ve done absolutely nothing all day and felt super guilty about it later? I know I have. In fact, as a serial procrastinator, it’s pretty much the story of my life. Despite the countless plans made for the weekend, I almost always find myself on the couch living the slouch life of “Netflix and Chips”.
But maybe, just maybe I haven’t been wasting my life away under the chip dust and heaps of blankets.
You see, a recent study by scientists have revealed that species with a higher metabolism rate are more vulnerable to extinction than their lazier counterparts.
Mathlab, by avoiding high metabolism activities like getting off the couch, for starters, we lazy folk have actually been extending our lives!
This new revelation was published this week in the Journal of Proceedings of The Royal Society. A team of experts conducted the study on molluscs to find out that species with low energy expenditure had greater chances of survival than those with higher levels.
A postdoctoral researcher from the University of Kansas’ Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, Luke Strotz said:
“Those that have lower energy maintenance requirements seem more likely to survive than those organisms with a higher metabolic rate.”
Scientists hope that the results from this study can now be used in the study of other species that are facing extinction in hopes of avoiding it.
Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Bruce Lieberman says:
“Maybe in the long term the best evolutionary strategy for animals is to be lassitudinous and sluggish– the lower the metabolic rate, the more likely the species you belong to will survive.
Instead of ‘survival of the fittest,’ maybe a better metaphor for the history of life is ‘survival of the laziest‘ or at least ‘survival of the sluggish.”
Hold your horses though, the study also states that there are a number of factors that contribute to the chances of extinction of a species. Having said that, knowing this relationship between metabolism rates and extinction will improve the accuracy of determining the probability of extinction.
It’s also worth mentioning that metabolic rate plays less of a part for species that inhabit a large number of habitats and ecosystems, ie, us humans.
So basically, while this study may not be a total green light of approval for your sloth-like lifestyle, it does provide a glimmer of hope.
So keep your fingers crossed while scientists study the connection between metabolism and extinction in other animal groups. Strotz adds:
“We see these results as generalizable to other groups, at least within the marine realm.
Some of the next steps are to expand it out to other clades, to see if the result is consistent with some things we know about other groups.”
Until then, get up off your ass and do something productive yo! Hold on, let me just take a quick nap first.