An analysis of the evolution of life history traits

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.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• McCoy, Zachary

Contributors dc:contributor

• Klug, Hope
• Boyd, Jennifer; Qin, Hong
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Evolution (Biology)
• Mammals -- Evolution
• Mammals -- Ecology

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/658

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1808