Life History Evolution in Guppies (Pecilia reticulata)

生命史进化理论， 在20世纪30年代和80年代成熟，代表了一个 适应度概念的推广。 健身现在被定义为 具有完整的变量，例如基因型的能力 人口规模的增加。 根据这一理论，自然 选择可以做一些看似违反直觉的事情。 为 例如，自然选择有可能有利于 寿命缩短或后代数量减少 #21453;，但有其他补偿。 目标 目的之一是在自然界中检验生命史理论 特立尼达岛的孔雀鱼种群。 “生活史”指的是动物的特征， 影响后代的产生，例如动物开始 繁殖的频率，有多少后代， 而每一个人，都有属于自己的，属于自己的。 最自然 人口面临着不同的死亡模式， 成年人和青少年的死亡率不同。 理论家们已经考虑了这方面的自然 选择将选择的生活特征的变化 历史 特立尼达岛不同种群的孔雀鱼 年龄别死亡率的差异， 他们的掠食者 有些种群有捕食者 主要是大型的性成熟的孔雀鱼 而其他的捕食者主要以小的为食， 不成熟的大小类。 特定大小的捕食似乎会导致 年龄别死亡率的差异。 一个预测是， 成年人的高死亡率将有利于那些 开始繁殖的时间更早， 资源用于再生产，较少用于自身的增长， 上维护 这些预测正在评估; 1） 量化孔雀鱼生活史模式的差异 从这两种类型的地方，2）量化死亡率 孔雀鱼在自然种群中的比例，以及3）改变 孔雀鱼及其捕食者在天然溪流中的分布， 驱动着生命史模式的进化。 这个项目 已经揭示了自然界的进化变化过程 人口，并将最终有可能评估 这种变化的机制。 同时，它还评估了 进化论的一个分支，它包含了一个更一般的 健身的定义

The theory of life history evolution, which began to develop in the 1930's and matured through the 1980's, represents a generalization of the concept of fitness. Fitness is now defined with complete variables, such as the ability of a genotype to increase in population size. Under this theory, natural selection can do seemingly counter-intuitive things. For example, it is possible for natural selection to favor a reduction in lifespan or a reduction in the number of offspring produced, provided that there are other compensations. The goal of this resolves is to test life history theory in natural populations of guppies from the island of Trinidad. "Life history" refers to features of animals that directly influence the production of offspring, such as when animals begin to reproduce, how often they reproduce, how many offspring they have, and the resources devoted to each offspring. Most natural populations are exposed to different patterns of mortality, such as different rates of mortality in adults versus juveniles. Theoreticians have considered how this aspect of natural selection will select for changes in features of the life history. Different populations of guppies in Trinidad appear to experience such differences in age-specific mortality because of their predators. Some populations have predators that prey predominantly on large, sexually mature size classes of guppies while others have predators that feed primarily on small, immature size classes. Size-specific predation appears to cause differences in age-specific mortality rates. One prediction is that higher adult mortality rates will favor those individuals that begin to reproduce earlier and devote more of their resources to reproduction and less to their own growth and maintenance. These predictions are being evaluated by; 1) quantifying the differences in life history patterns of guppies from these two types of localities, 2) quantifying the mortality rates of guppies in natural populations, and 3) changing the distribution of guppies and their predators in natural streams to drive the evolution of life history patterns. This project has already revealed the process of evolutionary change in natural populations and will ultimately make it possible to evaluate the mechanism of this change. At the same time, it evaluates a branch of evolutionary theory which incorporates a more general definition of fitness.