How Does Life History Theory Explain the Trade-Offs Regarding Rate

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The Answer is Life history theory explains the trade-offs between the quality and quantity of offspring and current and future reproduction based on the following principles: (a) reproduction is costly, and therefore, (b) natural selection acts to maximize fitness.
The rate of reproduction can be maximized, having as many offspring as possible, with the likely outcome being that only a few will survive. Or, the rate of reproduction can be optimized so that each offspring has a good chance of success, but effort is not wasted on too much focus on a smaller number of offspring.
Therefore, organisms can either have many offspring or a few of high quality that require more care, and they can have offspring (a) now or (b) later, but they cannot do both.
Any energy contributed to one offspring comes at a cost to others. Fast maturation and higher fertility at younger ages are favored primarily because natural selection is weaker on traits that affect older individuals. But ecological factors can shift this. Examples used in the book include opossum or other marsupials and placental mammals of different sizes and reproductive strategies. Lions, elephants, and primates are used as examples in the book, but other examples may be used by students (for example, mice and rats for the fast- or short-life history pattern).

How Does Life History Theory Explain the Trade-Offs Regarding Rate

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