From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sat Nov 20 1999 - 21:10:06 MST
Zeb Haradon wrote,
>I can think of one disadvantage to longevity. Generally (and this was even
>more true in the past), an individuals' offspring care for him when he's
>unable to care for himself. This minor drain on your children's resources
>could be enough of a disadvantage to mildly impact their reproductive
>rates - hence your "long term" reproductive rate (by which I mean total
>number of descendants).
Yes, I can see that. I still wonder if evolution can select for shorter life
spans in a particular population (not necessarily an entire species) via
speeding up the process of adaptation: shorter generations equals more genetic
experiments to run, and hence greater probability of solving problems presented
by a changing environment. If so, this would yield an advantage to a short-lived
population over a long-lived one. --J. R.
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