ANTHRO 7 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Pleiotropy, Senescence, Group Selection
Document Summary
Primate life histories and the evolution of intelligence. Rely more heavily on learning to acquire the knowledge and skills that they need to survive and reproduce successfully. Long periods of development and long life spans. Selection for larger brains generates selection for long lives. Correlation tells us that two traits are related but not why this relationship exists. Selection does not maintain costly features like the brain unless they confer important adaptive advantages. The evolutionary forces that shape trade-offs between the quantity and quality of offspring and between current and future reproduction. All organisms face trade-offs that constrain their reproductive options. Investment in one infant limits investment in other offspring, so parents must make trade-offs between the quality and quantity of offspring they produce. If growth enhances reproductive success, then it may be advantageous to grow large before beginning to reproduce. Thus many kinds of organisms have a juvenile phase in which they do not reproduce at all.
