Bertalanffy type growth models of ontogenetic growth with new metabolic exponents based on Parks model of food intake

The von Bertalanffy equation was developed in the 1940s and has since been the almost universal biologically motivated model to describe the ontogenetic growth of different species; it is characterized by the metabolic exponents a = 2/3, b = 1. West et al. (1997, 2001) suggested another pair of metabolic exponents (a = 2/3, b = 1) and provided biological reasoning for this choice. This project proposes biological reasoning for yet two other exponent pairs based on the ideas of Bertalanffy and West about metabolism and on a model of Parks (1982) about the dependency of growth on food intake.