LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS: ADAPTATIONS OR EFFECTS?

Summary Kemp, A. C. 1985. Life-history traits: adaptations or effects? Ostrich 56:147-150. Attention is drawn to the epigeneticist viewpoint concerning life-history traits, whereby differences between organisms are considered as effects of, among other things, scaling relationships. The recent papers of Western & Ssemakula (1982) and Calder (1983) have shown the extent to which variation in life-history traits of endotherms can be explained by scaling, mainly to body size, brain size and body temperature. Collection of comparative data and the search for scaling relationships in birds is encouraged.