Abstract
There is great variation in the age at which females of different mammalian species first breed. Recent comparative analyses have focused on the relationship between age at first reproduction and body size1–9, but differences in patterns of mortality experienced by natural populations are expected to have major effects on selection for age at first reproduction10–14. Here we show that the age at which females first reproduce is strongly correlated with expectation of life at birth, after the effects of body size have been removed, within and among species of mammals living in natural populations.
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Harvey, P., Zammuto, R. Patterns of mortality and age at first reproduction in natural populations of mammals. Nature 315, 319–320 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/315319a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/315319a0
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