Life history traits are integrated biological characteristics of an organism that determine the timing and allocation of resources to growth, reproduction, and survival, and thus shape its life cycle. They include age and size at maturity, fecundity, reproductive schedule (e.g., semelparity vs. iteroparity), offspring size and number, growth rate, and lifespan. As a composite process outcome of development, physiology, and behavior under genetic and environmental control, life history traits are central to life history theory, which models how natural selection optimizes trade-offs among these traits to maximize fitness in specific ecological contexts.
Facing both climate change and a crashing pollinator population, plants may be evolving to attract pollinators rather than adapting to a warming climate, and the trade-off has resulted in a steep decline in plants' rate of ...
Evolution
8 hours ago
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Originally from southeastern Africa, the turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) lives in seasonal bodies of water that form during the rainy season and disappear again during the dry season. The fish is highly adapted ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 8, 2026
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New research finds that the "silent" mutant male crickets of Hawaii, first observed more than 20 years ago, have now become well established across the Hawaiian islands, and that the reproductive challenges caused by a lack ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 8, 2026
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Visitors to the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, located about 340 miles (545 kilometers) off the coast of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, soon notice a small lizard. Seemingly ubiquitous, it roams among rocks, trails ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2026
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Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish may have evolved large brains because of the challenges posed by their environments rather than the demands of social life, according to a new study published in iScience today.
Evolution
Jul 2, 2026
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Diapause is a fascinating form of biological dormancy employed by a broad array of animals as a survival strategy to endure adverse environmental conditions. To overcome the problems associated with seasons that are unsuitable ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 30, 2026
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Biologists group animals with similar traits into broad categories called orders. Despite their similarities, animal species in the same order can have very different average lifespans.
Until recently, researchers were unable to conduct satellite-tracking studies on juvenile turtles because of their small body sizes and immediate dispersal into the ocean, leaving this period of their lives enigmatic and ...
In many fish species, water temperature determines the sex of the fry. This biological mechanism threatens to wipe out entire populations because of a shortage of females in the face of global warming. However, an international ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2026
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A new study has uncovered a fundamental link between brain size and offspring size, helping to solve a long-standing evolutionary puzzle: Why do birds lay such disproportionately large eggs?
Evolution
Jun 23, 2026
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