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Life History?

Poor “Life History.”  Unfortunately, this is one of the most commonly misused terms in biology.   There is really no such thing as a “life history.”  That term is short-hand and probably ought to be avoided.  There are “life history traits,” which are primary fitness parameters (e.g., size at maturity, age at first reproduction).  There are “life history trade-offs” which constrain how life history traits can be expressed (e.g., how does an animal divide offspring mass between number and size?).  And there is an organism’s “life history strategy” which is the evolved resolution among trade-offs; the overall pattern of the suite of life history traits; and the allocation of energy among survival, reproduction, and maintenance.

Do you really mean Natural History, Life Cycle, Life Stage, or Demography?

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