ANTH 011 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Biological Specificity, Parental Investment, Natural Selection
19 May 2020
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Document Summary
Natural selection acts on timing of life events. Timing of these events depends on the interaction between the organism and its environment; relevant factors include energy production, mortality. Natural selection will move a species towards optimal timing of these life events. Selection can also favor some flexibility in timing of life events within a population, with individual variability in optimal timing. Organisms convert energy from the environment into offspring. Time is a resource from gestation to death there is a limited increment of time in which to produce offspring. Energy that is used for one purpose cannot be used for other purposes. Organisms enhance their fitness in two ways: allocate resources to somatic growth, maintenance, repair; impacting schedule of mortality; or by allocating resources to reproduction thereby impacting the time of their fertility. Resources used for somatic growth and repair are resources not allocated to immediate reproduction, and vice versa.
