{"id":{"repo_id":"utc","oai_identifier":"oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1808"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/utc/oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1808","repository":{"repo_id":"utc","name":"University of Tennessee - Chattanooga","base_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"An analysis of the evolution of life history traits","abstract":"The evolution and relationship between life-history traits has been a popular research topic over the past several decades. Previous research has generally focused on a single or small number of species, or a single trait. I utilized multiple trait-based datasets to create a collection of 777 Mammalia species across five taxonomic orders (Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Chiroptera, Primates, Rodentia) to examine the relationships between size, longevity, maturity age, and number of offspring, both within the taxonomic orders and across the Mammalia clade. I found that although the general pattern followed classic “fast-slow continuum”, there were some exceptions to this pattern, specifically body size in Chiroptera and litter size in Artiodactyla and Primates. This suggests that although a correlation between certain life-history traits exist, “slow” traits (large size, long life, few offspring) do evolve in species with “fast” traits when limited by other factors, such as the size requirements for flight.","abstract_html":"The evolution and relationship between life-history traits has been a popular research topic over the past several decades. Previous research has generally focused on a single or small number of species, or a single trait. I utilized multiple trait-based datasets to create a collection of 777 Mammalia species across five taxonomic orders (Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Chiroptera, Primates, Rodentia) to examine the relationships between size, longevity, maturity age, and number of offspring, both within the taxonomic orders and across the Mammalia clade. I found that although the general pattern followed classic “fast-slow continuum”, there were some exceptions to this pattern, specifically body size in Chiroptera and litter size in Artiodactyla and Primates. This suggests that although a correlation between certain life-history traits exist, “slow” traits (large size, long life, few offspring) do evolve in species with “fast” traits when limited by other factors, such as the size requirements for flight.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["McCoy, Zachary"],"institution":"University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Klug, Hope","Boyd, Jennifer; Qin, Hong","College of Arts and Sciences"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:59Z","subjects":["Evolution (Biology)","Mammals -- Evolution","Mammals -- Ecology"],"languages":["English","eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/658","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Klug, Hope","Boyd, Jennifer; Qin, Hong","College of Arts and Sciences"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["McCoy, Zachary"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-05-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Masters theses","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Evolution (Biology)","Mammals -- Evolution","Mammals -- Ecology"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/658"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Dept. of Biological and Environmental Sciences","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The evolution and relationship between life-history traits has been a popular research topic over the past several decades. Previous research has generally focused on a single or small number of species, or a single trait. I utilized multiple trait-based datasets to create a collection of 777 Mammalia species across five taxonomic orders (Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Chiroptera, Primates, Rodentia) to examine the relationships between size, longevity, maturity age, and number of offspring, both within the taxonomic orders and across the Mammalia clade. I found that although the general pattern followed classic “fast-slow continuum”, there were some exceptions to this pattern, specifically body size in Chiroptera and litter size in Artiodactyla and Primates. This suggests that although a correlation between certain life-history traits exist, “slow” traits (large size, long life, few offspring) do evolve in species with “fast” traits when limited by other factors, such as the size requirements for flight."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["An analysis of the evolution of life history traits"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Klug, Hope","Boyd, Jennifer; Qin, Hong","College of Arts and Sciences"],"dc:creator":["McCoy, Zachary"],"dc:date":["2020-05-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Dept. of Biological and Environmental Sciences","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."],"dc:description.abstract":["The evolution and relationship between life-history traits has been a popular research topic over the past several decades. Previous research has generally focused on a single or small number of species, or a single trait. I utilized multiple trait-based datasets to create a collection of 777 Mammalia species across five taxonomic orders (Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Chiroptera, Primates, Rodentia) to examine the relationships between size, longevity, maturity age, and number of offspring, both within the taxonomic orders and across the Mammalia clade. I found that although the general pattern followed classic “fast-slow continuum”, there were some exceptions to this pattern, specifically body size in Chiroptera and litter size in Artiodactyla and Primates. This suggests that although a correlation between certain life-history traits exist, “slow” traits (large size, long life, few offspring) do evolve in species with “fast” traits when limited by other factors, such as the size requirements for flight."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/658"],"dc:language":["English","eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"],"dc:relation":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"],"dc:rights":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["Evolution (Biology)","Mammals -- Evolution","Mammals -- Ecology"],"dc:title":["An analysis of the evolution of life history traits"],"dc:type":["Masters theses","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:59Z"}