BIO 3122 Chapter 12: Chp 12 of Text

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After conception: the evol of life history and parental care. Opossums give birth to 7-8 babies in a single litter, nurturing them w milk until they can live on their own. Natural selection maximizes the lifetime fitness of organisms by adjusting the size of liters and the interval between them. Life history = the investment an organism makes in growth and reproduction. Life history traits include an organism"s age at first reproduction, the duration and schedule of reproduction, the number and size of offspring produced, and life span. Life history theory explores how the schedule and duration of key events in an organism"s life are shaped by natural selection. It helps explain variation in the age at which orgs begin reproducing, the size and number of offspring produced, the amount and type of parental care invested, and even the onset of senescence. Steven austad compared opossums living in sapelo island off the coast of georgia to mainland opossums.

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