Category
This term refers to the number of offspring an organism is capable of producing, often inversely related to the amount of energy invested in each.
What is fecundity?
This letter indicates a rapid reproductive capacity in species that produce many, often small, offspring.
What is r?
Animals that take care of their young for years, like humans and apes, usually only have this many offspring at a time.
What is one or two?
An animal that is often eaten by predators, or a prey animal, will generally evolve to have more of these.
What are babies/offspring?
Because they spend years protecting and nurturing their young, these large mammals typically only have one baby at a time.
What is an elephant?
Species that produce thousands of offspring typically do not provide this, leaving young to fend for themselves.
What is parental care?
This letter represents the carrying capacity and is used for species that produce few, large offspring with high survival rates.
What is k?
This "rule" states that a mammal's average litter size is half the number of its nipples.
What is the half-nipple rule?
Shorter-lived animals often have more babies because they cannot afford to wait to do this.
What is to reproduce?
The "K" in K-selection stands for this term, meaning the species lives near the maximum population size its environment can handle.
What is Carrying Capacity?
The "cost" of having a large number of offspring is that they are generally smaller and have a lower chance of doing this.
What is surviving to adulthood?
This classic r-selected species can produce up to a million eggs at once, but only a few will survive.
What is a fish (or specific fish like codfish/sunfish)?
Large mammals, like elephants, have only one calf because of this, which ensures a high chance of survival.
What is high parental investment?
This, according to Darwin, is a universal condition in nature where more eggs are produced than can survive to adulthood.
What is excess fecundity?
In the battle between many babies and few babies, this currency is what the mother is saving or spending.
What is energy?
This type of species, such as an elephant, is "expensive" to produce, requiring high energy investment for a single offspring.
What is a k-selected species?
While they have high fecundity, these animals can experience "boom and bust" population cycles when environmental conditions change.
What is a r-selected species?
These mammals have one or two babies because carrying more would interfere with their ability to fly.
What are bats?
Females of a species often have larger bodies to accommodate more offspring, an concept known as this type of selection.
What is fecundity selection?
This type of "pressure" forces large grazing animals like horses to have only one or two babies that can run shortly after birth.
What is predation?
Because they often invest energy in thousands of small, low-energy offspring, this group of organisms is considered to have high fecundity.
What are invertebrates (or fish/insects)?
These organisms invest energy in long-term growth and survival, fitting the K-selected strategy, rather than making hundreds of low-energy seeds.
What are plants?
Species that produce fewer, high-quality offspring are often found in these types of ecosystems, where competition for resources is high.
What are stable environments?
This "shocking" invertebrate can have thousands of babies at once and is known for its ability to regenerate limbs.
What is a jellyfish?
This type of animal, such as a dog or cat, has a medium litter size because they invest some, but not extreme, care in their offspring.
What is a mammal?