Macroevolution of dimensionless life history metrics in tetrapods

Morrow, Cecina Babich; Kerkhoff, Andrew J.; Ernest, S. K. Morgan

doi:10.1101/520361

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…This raises interesting questions about the trait space of life-history parameters (e.g. Blonder et al 2014;Morrow et al 2019) and how they interact with dynamic environments to form communities (e.g. Enquist et al 2015;Enquist et al 2017;Burger et al 2019b).…”

Section: Trait Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

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Universal rules of life: metabolic rates, biological times and the equal fitness paradigm

et al. 2021

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Here we review and extend the equal fitness paradigm (EFP) as an important step in developing and testing a synthetic theory of ecology and evolution based on energy and metabolism. The EFP states that all organisms are equally fit at steady state, because they allocate the same quantity of energy,~22.4 kJ/g/generation to the production of offspring. On the one hand, the EFP may seem tautological, because equal fitness is necessary for the origin and persistence of biodiversity. On the other hand, the EFP reflects universal laws of life: how biological metabolismthe uptake, transformation and allocation of energylinks ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes across levels of organisation from: (1) structure and function of individual organisms, (2) life history and dynamics of populations, and (3) interactions and coevolution of species in ecosystems. The physics and biology of metabolism have facilitated the evolution of millions of species with idiosyncratic anatomy, physiology, behaviour and ecology but also with many shared traits and tradeoffs that reflect the single origin and universal rules of life.

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Section: Trait Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…2014; Morrow et al . 2019) and how they interact with dynamic environments to form communities (e.g. Enquist et al .…”

Section: The Road Forward: Testing and Extending The Efpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universal rules of life: metabolic rates, biological times and the equal fitness paradigm

et al. 2021

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“…These observations are consistent with that incubation time, larval period, and metamorphosis size (each of these traits contributes to the time that an organism spends to prepare to reproduce) turned out to be invariant toward body size in amphibians, but not in reptiles. Likewise, Morrow et al (2019) observed that lifetime reproductive effort and relative offspring size decrease with body mass in amphibians and squamates (although in squamates, this decrease is not significant for lifetime reproductive effort). Their two observations also strengthen our results.…”

Section: Ta B L Ementioning

confidence: 94%

“…Thus, adult life span divided by the time needed to reach maturity (time before reproduction vs. time available for reproduction) is on average smaller in amphibians than in reptiles (Morrow et al, 2019). It increases significantly with body mass in Squamata but is independent of body mass in amphibians (Morrow et al, 2019). These observations are consistent with that incubation time, larval period, and metamorphosis size (each of these traits contributes to the time that an organism spends to prepare to reproduce) turned out to be invariant toward body size in amphibians, but not in reptiles.…”

Section: Ta B L Ementioning

confidence: 99%

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An identification of invariants in life history traits of amphibians and reptiles

Hallmann

Griebeler

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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While many morphological, physiological, and ecological characteristics of organisms scale with body size, some do not change under size transformation. They are called invariant. A recent study recommended five criteria for identifying invariant traits. These are based on that a trait exhibits a unimodal central tendency and varies over a limited range with body mass (type I), or that it does not vary systematically with body mass (type II). We methodologically improved these criteria and then applied them to life history traits of amphibians, Anura, Caudata (eleven traits), and reptiles (eight traits). The numbers of invariant traits identified by criteria differed across amphibian orders and between amphibians and reptiles. Reproductive output (maximum number of reproductive events per year), incubation time, length of larval period, and metamorphosis size were type I and II invariant across amphibians. In both amphibian orders, reproductive output and metamorphosis size were type I and II invariant. In Anura, incubation time and length of larval period and in Caudata, incubation time were further type II invariant. In reptiles, however, only number of clutches per year was invariant (type II). All these differences could reflect that in reptiles body size and in amphibians, Anura, and Caudata metamorphosis (neotenic species go not through it) and the trend toward independence of egg and larval development from water additionally constrained life history evolution. We further demonstrate that all invariance criteria worked for amphibian and reptilian life history traits, although we corroborated some known and identified new limitations to their application.

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Toward a metabolic theory of life history

Burger

Hou

Brown

2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The life histories of animals reflect the allocation of metabolic energy to traits that determine fitness and the pace of living. Here, we extend metabolic theories to address how demography and mass–energy balance constrain allocation of biomass to survival, growth, and reproduction over a life cycle of one generation. We first present data for diverse kinds of animals showing empirical patterns of variation in life-history traits. These patterns are predicted by theory that highlights the effects of 2 fundamental biophysical constraints: demography on number and mortality of offspring; and mass–energy balance on allocation of energy to growth and reproduction. These constraints impose 2 fundamental trade-offs on allocation of assimilated biomass energy to production: between number and size of offspring, and between parental investment and offspring growth. Evolution has generated enormous diversity of body sizes, morphologies, physiologies, ecologies, and life histories across the millions of animal, plant, and microbe species, yet simple rules specified by general equations highlight the underlying unity of life.

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Macroevolution of dimensionless life history metrics in tetrapods

Cited by 6 publications

References 49 publications

Universal rules of life: metabolic rates, biological times and the equal fitness paradigm

Universal rules of life: metabolic rates, biological times and the equal fitness paradigm

An identification of invariants in life history traits of amphibians and reptiles

Toward a metabolic theory of life history

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