ANTH 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Life Time Fitness, Egg Cell
Document Summary
Male distribution depends on female distribution which depends on food. Primate mothers are almost always the primary caretakers of offspring. The behavior of fathers is much more variable. Female reproductive potential (fitness) is more limited. Females born with limited number of eggs/ovum. Female can only breed when ova mature and are released. Males can fertilize whenever sperm are replenished. Energetic costs of pregnancy and lactation requires mammalian female to make a significant investment in each offspring. Each infant represents a significant portion of a female"s lifetime fitness. Females have limited capacity to increase reproductive success by. Females are best able to increase reproductive success by increasing increasing the # of offspring survival. Females can improve the likelihood of their and their offspring"s survival in 2 ways: Invest more care and energy into offspring depends largely on her ability to obtain important resources to support herself and her offspring. Be choosy about males fathering offspring only mate with quality males.
