scholarly journals Population and Life-History Consequences of Within-Cohort Individual Variation

2011 ◽  
Vol 178 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela González-Suárez ◽  
Jean-François Le Galliard ◽  
David Claessen



Author(s):  
Marshall Joseph Becker

Becker applies a life history (or osteobiographic) approach in the study of the remains of individuals who have been identified as Prince Spytihn?v, Duke of Bohemia, and his wife. Specifically, Becker seeks to learn how the confluence of diet and royal social status in the 9th century A.D. early Czech state affected these two elite people’s growth process and physical activity. This contextually rich work tests the notion that terminal adult stature and skeletal robusticity may have embodied lives of privilege. The data reveal that while Spytihn?v and his wife were notably more robust than people of the lower social rank, their stature falls within the range of all other males and females from this population. Stature variation may not always hold a one-to-one correlation with social rank, especially considering individual variation and the biocultural vagaries of the early Czech state. The bioarchaeology of such “emergent elites” helps shed light on the early states of late first millennium Europe.





2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (88) ◽  
pp. 20130544 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. McNamara

Most examples of the application of evolutionary game theory to problems in biology involve highly simplified models. I contend that it is time to move on and include much more richness in models. In particular, more thought needs to be given to the importance of (i) between-individual variation; (ii) the interaction between individuals, and hence the process by which decisions are reached; (iii) the ecological and life-history context of the situation; (iv) the traits that are under selection, and (v) the underlying psychological mechanisms that lead to behaviour. I give examples where including variation between individuals fundamentally changes predicted outcomes of a game. Variation also selects for real-time responses, again resulting in changed outcomes. Variation can select for other traits, such as choosiness and social sensitivity. More generally, many problems involve coevolution of more than one trait. I identify situations where a reductionist approach, in which a game is isolated from is ecological setting, can be misleading. I also highlight the need to consider flexibility of behaviour, mental states and other issues concerned with the evolution of mechanism.



Author(s):  
Tony D. Williams

This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive account of research on avian reproduction. It develops two unique themes: the consideration of female avian reproductive physiology and ecology, and an emphasis on individual variation in life-history traits. The book investigates the physiological, metabolic, energetic, and hormonal mechanisms that underpin individual variation in the key female-specific reproductive traits and the trade-offs between these traits that determine variation in fitness. The core of the book deals with the avian reproductive cycle, from seasonal gonadal development, through egg laying and incubation, to chick rearing. Reproduction is considered in the context of the annual cycle and through an individual's entire life history. The book focuses on timing of breeding, clutch size, egg size and egg quality, and parental care. It also provides a primer on female reproductive physiology and considers trade-offs and carryover effects between reproduction and other life-history stages. Each chapter describes individual variation in the trait of interest and the evolutionary context for trait variation. The book argues that there is only a rudimentary, and in some cases nonexistent, understanding of the physiological mechanisms that underpin individual variation in the major reproductive life-history traits, and that research efforts should refocus on these key unresolved problems by incorporating detailed physiological studies into existing long-term population studies, generating a new synthesis of physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology.



1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Hayes ◽  
T. Garland ◽  
M. R. Dohm


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBORAH FISCHBEIN ◽  
JOSÉ M. VILLACIDE ◽  
GERARDO DE LA VEGA ◽  
JUAN C. CORLEY




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