Skip Navigation

American Zoologist 1983 23(1):15-23; doi:10.1093/icb/23.1.15
© 1983 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by ROSE, M. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Theories of Life-History Evolution1

MICHAEL R. ROSE
Department of Biology, Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4J1

In order to assess current scientific understanding of life-history evolution, the alternative fundamental theories are formulated in a refutable form and compared with the available empirical evidence. The hypothesis that life-history does not evolve is rejected on the grounds that life-history can be readily modified by artifical selection. The hypothesis that life-history evolves according to mechanisms other than natural selection acting on genetic variation is shown to have no sound experimental basis. The hypothesis that life-history evolution depends primarily on group selection is undermined by the absence of the predicted group adaptations. The hypothesis that life-history is a unitary character which evolves in the same fashion as fitness is rejected because of the disparity between life-history genetics and basic theory concerning the evolution of fitness. The hypothesis that life-history is composed of a set of autonomous characters which are subject to mutation accumulation at later ages is refuted by the lack of any detectable increase in genetic variability with age and the evidence for the interdependence of life-history characters. It is concluded that the hypothesis of antagonistic interactions between life-history characters, generalized to take genetic variability into account, is the most satisfactory theory of life-history evolution available.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.