Theory 49/Organism/Digestive morphology
Gut Length Follows Diet Quality
The claim
Relative gut length is set by the ratio of diet quality to absorption rate, so low-quality diets require longer guts to extract the same energy.
01Mechanism
Extraction requires surface and time; the ratio determines how much gut is needed per unit of energy gained.
02Prediction
Gut length should track the ratio.
03Refutation
Gut length tracking body size would remove diet.