What is Life History?

Life history refers to the pattern of growth, reproduction, and survival of an organism throughout its life.

It includes traits such as:

• Age at first reproduction
• Number of times an organism reproduces
• Number of offspring produced
• Size of offspring
• Lifespan

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Main Idea

• Every population evolves to maximize its reproductive fitness (Darwinian fitness).
• Darwinian fitness means the ability of an organism to leave the maximum number of surviving offspring in the next generation.
• Organisms evolve the most suitable reproductive strategy according to their habitat and environmental conditions.