What is a life-history pattern?

Question

the worsd is from biology

Answer 1

1. Life-history traits are characteristics of a species life that you can measure e.g. in mammals - length of gestation, number of offspring, age at independence, age of first reproduction, age at death etc. Together they sum up the life-history of that species.

2. If you look at small rodents then they tend to share similar life-histories and it was for them that the life-history pattern was described as 'live fast die young'. This is a completely different life-history pattern than you find in an elephant or a whale.

3. You would expect small rodents to have similar life-history patterns as they are all closely related in evolutionary terms - but maybe there are other species that have a similar life-history pattern independent of being closely related. For example some small carnivores (such as weasels) have a life-history pattern which is more like that of a rodent than that of other carnivores to which they are more closely related.

4. Life-histories traits are nearly always measured scaled by body size as some characteristics are affected by size alone. For example longevity for many mammals is highly dependent on body size. Other characteristics are not simply the result of body size e.g. in antelopes, deer, equines etc. the young are all on their feet soon after birth regardless of size. On the other hand bears give birth to tiny underdeveloped young given their large size and this is a disitinctive life-history pattern independent of size.

5. This is a huge area, really hard to say much in this space. The investigation of life-history patterns is one of the core areas of evolutionary biology. It does have some more practical applications. When commercial whaling was banned, life-history patterns helped to predict how long it would take whale populations to recover and understanding life-history patterns is still a vital component in animal conservation today.

Answer 2

It's an organism's reproductive pattern - whether it reproduces quickly or slowly.

Answer 3

Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_history_theory