Biology › Section R · The biosphere, populations, and communities › Topic R.5
Life histories and natural selection
A cod spawns millions of eggs and swims away; an elephant raises one calf for years. Neither strategy is better in general. Each is natural selection's answer to the same problem: how to turn a limited supply of energy into as many surviving descendants as possible.
In this topic
- What a life history is
- Energy budgets and trade-offs
- Fecundity and parental care
- Worked example: many small eggs or few large ones?
- Early or late reproduction
- Worked example: guppies under predation
- Once or many times
- A spectrum of strategies
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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