Comparing non-linear mathematical models to describe growth of different animals

The main objective of this study was to compare the goodness of fit of five non-linear growth models, i.e. Brody, Gompertz, Logistic, Richards and von Bertalanffy in different animals. It also aimed to evaluate the influence of the shape parameter on the growth curve. To accomplish this task, published growth data of 14 different groups of animals were used and four goodness of fit statistics were adopted: coefficient of determination ( R 2 ), root mean square error ( RMSE ), Akaike information criterion ( AIC ) and Bayesian information criterion ( BIC ). In general, the Richards growth equation provided better fits to experimental data than the other models. However, for some animals, different models exhibited better performance. It was obtained a possible interpretation for the shape parameter, in such a way that can provide useful insights to predict animal growth behavior.