The evolution of life cycles or life histories is one of the most important topics in behavioral and population ecology and in evolutionary biology. There is inherent interest in explaining the diversity of life cycles among species: These span a range from rapidly multiplying but short-lived bacteria and yeast to the long life and slow breeding of the wandering albatross (1). However, when we look closely at the characteristics of a life history, we see traits that reflect the evolutionary fitness of organisms: survival of individuals from young to old and the onset, magnitude, and duration of reproduction. When advantages in life-history characteristics are associated with heritable organismal traits, the essence of natural selection is born (2).
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F. Stephen Dobson (2007) studied this question.
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