Figure 4

Potential patterns of mass loss in parents withdiffering initial reserves. Sketch (not to scale) shows the initial and final masses of an initially heavy parent in comparison to an initially light parent (note that the lines are given simply to connect initial and final masses, rather than show the shape of the mass changes during this interval; note also that the given mass loss by the initially light parent is for illustrative purposes only, and offers a benchmark mass change to compare heavy parent loss against). The line types for the initially heavy parent show the form of b(L) considered: case 1 – constant slope (solid line); case 2 – decreasing slope (dashed line); and case 3 – increasing slope (dotted line).