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From: toby@castle.ed.ac.uk (R T Tyrrell)
Subject: Re: Reason for Short Life Spans?
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Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 14:29:03 GMT
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Keith Wiley (keithw@next05wor.wam.umd.edu) wrote:
: In article <shea.1144.0011D42E@marcam.com> shea@marcam.com (Tim Shea)  
: writes:
: > Is there any evolutionary benefit to a species having a short 
: > life span?

: I know this isn't what you mean but Preying Mantises and Tarantulas allow  
: the female to eat the male after copulation to provide her with the  
: nutrients necessary for more productive offspring.

: Otherwise, in a desolate environment where very very few individuals can  
: survive, it would be best to get born, reproduce, and die as quickly as  
: possible to make way for your very own offspring to eat and live.  Just  
: one theory.  I know of no such example.

I remember reading that life-span may be linked to predation.  There's no
point in going to the trouble of building an extra-durable body if the
animal is likely to get killed before the natural end of its life anyway.
It would be like paying out 500 pounds on rust-protection for your car and
then going out stock-car racing in it!  It was suggested that the giant
tortoises of the Galapagoa Islands have such long life-spans because they
have no natural predators.

regards,

Toby Tyrrell
Plymouth Marine Laboratory,
Prospect Place,
Plymouth PL1 3DU.

tt@pml.ac.uk
