Content uploaded by Diana O. Fisher
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Diana O. Fisher on Dec 03, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org
Research
Cite this article: Collett RA, Baker AM, Fisher
DO. 2018 Prey productivity and predictability
drive different axes of life-history variation in
carnivorous marsupials. Proc. R. Soc. B 285:
20181291.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1291
Received: 10 June 2018
Accepted: 10 October 2018
Subject Category:
Evolution
Subject Areas:
ecology, evolution, theoretical biology
Keywords:
Dasyuridae, life history, seasonality, fast– slow
continuum, iteroparity, semelparity
Author for correspondence:
Rachael A. Collett
e-mail: rachael.collett@uqconnect.edu.au
Electronic supplementary material is available
online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.
figshare.c.4267451.
Prey productivity and predictability drive
different axes of life-history variation in
carnivorous marsupials
Rachael A. Collett1, Andrew M. Baker2and Diana O. Fisher1
1
School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
2
School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane,
Queensland 4000, Australia
RAC, 0000-0002-9727-6622
Variation in life-history strategies has usually been characterized as a single
fast– slow continuum of life-history variation, in which mean lifespan
increases with age at maturity as reproductive output at each breeding
event declines. Analyses of plants and animals suggest that strategies of
reproductive timing can vary on an independent axis, with iteroparous
species at one extreme and semelparous species at the other. Insectivorous
marsupials in the Family Dasyuridae have an unusually wide range of
life-history strategies on both purported axes. We test and confirm that
reproductive output and degree of iteroparity are independent in females
across species. Variation in reproductive output per episode is associated
with mean annual rainfall, which predicts food availability. Position on
the iteroparity-semelparity axis is not associated with annual rainfall, but
species in regions of unpredictable rainfall have longer maximum life-
spans, more potential reproductive events per year, and longer
breeding seasons. We suggest that these two axes of life-history variation
arise because reproductive output is limited by overall food availability,
and selection for high offspring survival favours concentrated breeding
in seasonal environments. Longer lifespans are favoured when reproduc-
tive opportunities are dispersed over longer periods in environments
with less predictable food schedules.
1. Introduction
Variation between species in schedules of survival, growth, and reproduction is
usually considered on one axis of life-history variation from fast to slow [1– 3],
assuming that trade-offs between age at maturity, fertility, and lifespan con-
strain life-history strategies, so that species invest most in either reproduction
(faster species) or survival (slower species) [4,5]. However, several analyses
have suggested that the degree of iteroparity (i.e. breeding repeatedly in a
dispersed time period at one end of the spectrum and breeding once in a con-
centrated time period at the other) is independent of the fast–slow continuum.
That is, the degree of iteroparity (number and spacing of reproductive events) is
not necessarily traded off with life-history speed (investment in reproduction
versus longevity). Stearns [6] found a secondary precociality–altriciality conti-
nuum in mammals after accounting for the slow– fast continuum, and Gaillard
et al. [7] identified this as part of a semelparity-iteroparity axis that accounts for
up to 15% of variation in birds and mammals. In a more recent factor analysis of
mammals, Bielby et al. [5] identified a factor that explained up to half of the
variance between species, and included maturity, weaning time, and time
between reproductive bouts. A second factor explained a further quarter of
the variance and described output per reproductive episode. Species at one
end produced large litters of small young and species at the other end invested
more in large but few young. Bielby et al. [5] interpreted species position on
this output axis in terms of the well-known offspring number versus quality
&2018 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
trade-off, which is grounded in physiological constraints
[8,9]. Salguero-Gomez et al. [10] have recently also demon-
strated that the fast–slow continuum in plants includes
traits of growth rate and lifespan on one axis and degree of
iteroparity on another. Iteroparity is a risk-spreading repro-
ductive tactic and is likely to be an advantage in variable
environments. When conditions favouring offspring survival
are unpredictable, bet-hedging by repeated breeding
increases fitness, given a trade-off between reproduction
and survival [11–13]. Bielby et al. [5] called for research to test
how the iteroparity and reproductive output axes in mammal
life-history variation are associated with environmental
variability.
Reproductive output, which includes number and size of
offspring, is expected to be constrained by food availability
and a female’s ability to use energy and nutrients for repro-
duction [1,14,15]. In marsupial taxa, adoption of higher
energy diets has been associated with evolutionary switches
to higher reproductive rates. Corresponding trade-offs
between reproductive output and other life-history traits
have led to the evolution of fast life-history strategies in car-
nivorous species [16]. Rainfall and temperature seasonality
might also influence age-specific survival [17], which deter-
mines how species should trade off reproduction and
survival [18]. We therefore predict that in carnivorous marsu-
pials from the Family Dasyuridae, which are distributed
widely across climate zones, features of climate that increase
overall arthropod availability will be correlated with higher
reproductive output in terms of litter size per reproductive
bout and a faster life history.
Adaptive reproductive timing coincides with events that
maximize offspring survival, such as seasonal rainfall and
peaks in prey abundance [11,19,20]. For example, the desert
chameleon (Furcifer labordi) from Madagascar has evolved
semelparity and extended incubation time in an arid, seaso-
nal environment [21]. Similarly, Australian dasyurids with
late maturity, monoestry and semelparity occur where there
are predictable annual peaks in arthropod abundance,
because only one favourable time to wean young per year
is possible, given that the marsupial trait of long lactation
precludes breeding in the season of an individual’s birth
[22]. We therefore predict that features of climate that increase
food seasonality and the predictability of peaks in prey abun-
dance will be correlated with semelparity in female
dasyurids.
Using databases of life-history traits (see the electronic
supplementary material for source references), location
records in the Australian marsupial Family Dasyuridae, and
long-term climate data, we test how female reproductive
output, degree of iteroparity, and lifespan covary with food
abundance and seasonal predictability of food.
(a) Specific predictions
We hypothesise that reproductive output and degree of iter-
oparity in females are independent: output will depend on
food availability and not food predictability, whereas
degree of iteroparity will depend on food predictability and
not food availability. We therefore predict that litter size
and the number of neonates at birth will covary with the
amount of rainfall, and lifespan, length of the annual repro-
ductive season, and the number of reproductive attempts
will covary with rainfall predictability.
2. Methods
(a) Study taxa
Dasyurids are predominantly insectivorous, range in size from
less than 5 g to 9 kg, and have a maximum lifespan of 1 –6
years [23]. The maximum number of young that can be reared
is determined by the number of teats, which vary from two to
14. Some groups such as antechinus produce supernumerary
young: they give birth to more young than the number of teats,
so some inevitably die at birth. Other species produce fewer
young than the number of teats [24]. In seasonal breeders, the
reproductive season lasts for two weeks to six months, depend-
ing on the species. Uniquely in mammals, dasyurid males
include the entire spectrum from obligate semelparity to itero-
parity. Females can breed multiple times and vary from
virtually semelparous to continuous breeding [16,18,25]. Com-
plete male die-off occurs in 20% of dasyurid species (Fisher
et al. [22]), including: all in the genera Antechinus,Phascogale,
and Dasykaluta [26]; Dasyurus and Parantechinus each contain a
single species with facultatively semelparous males [27,28].
Females from some species are monoestrous (i.e. breed once a
year), while others are polyoestrous (i.e. can produce multiple
litters per season) [29].
(b) Data
We collated published female life-history data on 34 Australian
dasyurids taken from 82 studies (table 1; electronic supplemen-
tary material). We only included species that are
predominantly insectivorous (arthropods are greater than 75%
of their diet), because associations between rainfall and arthro-
pod availability have been quantified [22], allowing us to use
rainfall as a proxy for food availability [30]. Traits analysed
included: body mass at adulthood, maximum lifespan, polyestry
versus monoestry, duration of reproductive season (indicating
number of possible reproductive attempts), litter size, and
number of supernumerary young. Where possible, we used pub-
lished field studies. Because potential within-breeding episode
trade-offs with short-term food supply are likely to be important
in dasyurids [30], we used offspring number per reproductive
bout rather than a ratio of long-term output over time such as
reproductive rate. We used litter sizes recorded within a week
of birth, because mothers may progressively lose pouch young
during lactation. We calculated mean values for traits when
there were multiple studies of the same species. We defined the
duration of the reproductive season as the number of weeks
with births [31].
We used rainfall as a proxy for arthropod availability (abun-
dance and activity) [32]. For each species, we used mean annual
rainfall at the centroid of geographical range based on all
recorded locations [22]. We calculated seasonal predictability
of rainfall by collating monthly rainfall from the Bureau of
Meteorology [33] at the study sites where life-history infor-
mation was collected. We gathered these data for the 10 years
preceding the end of the study, as Fisher et al.[22]foundthat
3–8 years of insect and climate data gave repeatable results
and clear outcomes in tests of hypotheses at these sites. For
each site, we categorized monthly rainfall as ‘high’ if it was in
the top 25% of abundances, or ‘low’ if it was in the lower
75% of abundances. We used these categorical data to calculate
a Colwell index for rainfall at each site where marsupial life-his-
tory data were collected [22]. Colwell’s index (P) uses
categorical data to measure how tightly an event is linked to a
season. P is composed of C (constancy) and M (contingency).
Constancy describes how uniform the event is across seasons.
Contingency measures the repeatability of seasonal patterns
between years. P is maximized when the event occurs con-
stantly throughout the year or if the pattern of occurrence is
repeated across years [34].
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20181291
2
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
(c) Statistical analyses
We log-transformed body mass, lifespan, and length of the repro-
ductive season and arcsin-transformed rainfall predictability (P)
to normalize the distributions [35]. We used phylogenetic gener-
alized least-squares (PGLS) models in R, using the packages ape
[36] and nlme [37] to test the relationships between predictor
variables: annual rainfall, rainfall predictability (P), lifespan,
length of the reproductive season, and polyestry, and response
variables: lifespan, length of the reproductive season, litter size,
and supernumerary young, incorporating phylogenetic infor-
mation and body mass into models. We used a recent
marsupial phylogeny [38] to account for interspecific autocorre-
lation due to phylogeny [39]. We used a multivariate normal
prior for the phylogenetic random effects, with unit variances
and correlation structure derived from the phylogenetic tree
using Grafen’s branch lengths [40]. We calculated a pseudo
r-squared for each PGLS model [41].
3. Results
(a) Trade-offs and climate predictors of reproductive
output
In agreement with our hypothesis that food availability limits
reproductive output, species in more arid climates produced
fewer young per reproductive bout (litter size versus mean
annual rainfall: t¼2.72, p¼0.01, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼0.001,
s.e. ¼0.0005; figure 1). Litter size was negatively associated
with mass (t¼22.89, p¼0.007, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼20.68,
s.e. ¼0.24). Species with larger litters were more likely to
have supernumerary young (t¼3.47, p¼0.002, d.f. ¼34,
slope ¼1.64, s.e. ¼0.47), and the number of supernumerary
young was correlated with annual rainfall (t¼2.14, p¼
0.04, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼358, s.e. ¼167), further supporting
our prediction that there would be a positive relationship
between food availability and reproductive output. Species
occurring in Australia’s arid and semi-arid zones (less than
350 mm annual rainfall) never had more than seven young,
and only one desert species, the kowari (Dasyuroides byrnei),
produced any supernumerary young. In agreement with
our prediction that reproductive output would not vary
with food predictability, litter size was not significantly
related to P (rainfall predictability) (t¼20.4, p¼0.69,
d.f. ¼34, slope ¼20.79, s.e. ¼2) (pseudo r-squared for
model one ¼0.32). Litter size was also not associated with
traits that indicate the degree of iteroparity in females
(litter size versus length of reproductive season: t¼21.85,
10
0
500 1 5001 000
Partial residuals of annual rainfall (mm)
Litter size (no. pouch young)
2
4
6
8
Figure 1. The association between litter size and partial residuals of mean
annual rainfall for Australian insectivorous dasyurid species. The line indicates
the fitted regression from model one, including 95% confidence intervals.
Table 1. Dasyurid species included in this study and the number of
published studies data was collated from. PTR ( personal trapping records)
and PC (personal correspondence).
Species No. of studies
Antechinomys laniger 2
Antechinus agilis 1 and PTR
Antechinus bellus 2
Antechinus flavipes 3 and PTR
Antechinus godmani 1 and PTR
Antechinus leo 2
Antechinus minimus 3
Antechinus stuartii 1 and PTR
Antechinus subtropicus PTR
Antechinus mimetes 2
Dasycercus cristicauda PC
Dasykaluta rosamondae 3
Dasyuroides byrnei 2
Dasyurus hallucatus 3
Dasyurus viverrinus 2
Ningaui ridei 3
Parantechinus apicalis 3
Parantechinus bilarni 3
Phascogale calura 2
Phascogale tapoatafa 4
Planigale gilesi 3
Planigale ingrami 3
Planigale maculata 2
Planigale tenuirostris 3
Pseudantechinus macdonnellensis 2
Pseudantechinus ningbing 1
Sminthopsis crassicaudata 4
Sminthopsis douglasi 1
Sminthopsis griseoventer 1 and PC
Sminthopsis leucopus 3
Sminthopsis macroura 4
Sminthopsis murina 2
Sminthopsis ooldea 2
Sminthopsis virginiae 2
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20181291
3
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
p¼0.07, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼20.08, s.e. ¼0.04; litter size
versus polyestry: t¼1.19, p¼0.24, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼1.1,
s.e. ¼0.92) and dasyurids do not trade off litter size against
lifespan (litter size versus lifespan: t¼20.04, p¼0.97,
d.f. ¼34, slope ¼20.04, s.e. ¼1.03) (pseudo r-squared for
model two ¼0.25). Litter size of species in our study
ranged from four to 10.
(b) Trade-offs and climate predictors of the degree of
iteroparity
Female maximum lifespan of species in our study ranged
from one to six years and were positively associated with
mass (t¼2.27, p¼0.03, slope ¼0.11, s.e. ¼0.05). As pre-
dicted, lifespan was longer in areas with more
unpredictable food supplies (lifespan versus rainfall predict-
ability index P: t¼23.23, p¼0.003, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼1.24,
s.e. ¼0.38, figure 2) (pseudo r-squared for model three ¼
0.32). Species with long lifespans are more likely to have
long reproductive seasons (lifespan versus reproductive
season length: t¼4.29, p¼0.0002, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼0.02,
s.e. ¼0.005) ( pseudo r-squared for model four ¼0.38) and
to have multiple litters per season (lifespan versus polyestry:
t¼2.51, p¼0.02, d.f. ¼34, slope ¼0.25, s.e. ¼0.1) (pseudo
r-squared for model five ¼0.19). Reproductive season
length alone was also strongly associated with rainfall pre-
dictability (reproductive season length versus rainfall
predictability index P: t¼24.73, p¼0.0001, d.f. ¼34,
slope ¼20.89, s.e. ¼0.26, figure 3) (pseudo r-squared for
model six ¼0.14). This supports our hypothesis that adap-
tation to a seasonal climate, and therefore predictability of
food schedules, favours a short reproductive period in
seasonal environments, and a long lifespan with repeat
breeding over a long period is more likely to evolve where
there is less predictable rainfall. Annual rainfall did not sig-
nificantly predict rainfall predictability (t¼1.14, p¼0.26,
d.f. ¼32, slope ¼731, s.e. ¼643.1), as some regions of arid
Australia where dasyurids were sampled have highly predict-
able rainfall, and some more mesic areas have unpredictable
rainfall (figure 4). For example, Ningaui timealeyi (body
weight 5.8 g) has a maximum lifespan of one year, and
although its Western Australia Pilbara location is a dry
environment, summer cyclones are common and most
annual rainfalls predictably in February [43]. Planigale gilesi
(body weight 6.9 g) in arid western New South Wales is simi-
lar in size and ecology but lives for a maximum of five years
in a region where low, annual rainfall falls unpredictably
across the year [44].
4. Discussion
Our results agree with several previous analyses, which con-
cluded that aspects of the fast–slow continuum are
independent of the semelparity-iteroparity axis in mammals.
We focused on offspring number, because previous studies
revealing multiple axes of life-history variation in mammals
identified reproductive output as a key variable [5,7]. The
theory basis of within-bout trade-offs with litter size is well
established [15,45]. Experiments and descriptive tests in
small eutherian mammals have shown that the trade-off
between the number and prenatal growth rate of offspring
in a litter is strongly affected by physiological constraints of
energy, nutrients, temperature, and tissue capacity. Total
0.5
1.6
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.00.90.80.7
Partial residuals of sin Colwell’s seasonalit
y
index (P)
Log female maximum lifespan (years)
0.6
Figure 2. The association between log female maximum lifespan and partial
residuals of sin Colwell’s predictability index of rainfall for Australian insecti-
vorous dasyurid species. The line indicates the fitted regression from model
three, including 95% confidence intervals.
0.5
1.5
Log10 length of breeding season (weeks)
0
0.5
1.0
1.00.90.80.7
Partial residuals of sin Colwell’s seasonality index (P)
0.6
Figure 3. The association between log10 length of the breeding season and
partial residuals of sin Colwell’s predictability index of rainfall for Australian
insectivorous dasyurid species. The line indicates the fitted regression from
model six, including 95% confidence intervals.
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20181291
4
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
investment in reproduction is expected to reduce long-term
survival under the disposable soma theory, which states
that investment in reproduction reduces individual somatic
maintenance [46,47]. In an environment with high extrinsic
mortality in adults, organisms should invest in early and
high reproductive output rather than long-term maintenance
and survival. Position of a species on the fast– slow conti-
nuum is therefore expected to depend on aspects of its
ecology and environment that affect age-specific mortality
risk [48]. Litter size and growth is traded off within each
reproductive episode based on maternal investment capacity
at the time [9,15]. However, distributing this investment over
a longer breeding period does not necessarily change the
upper limit on the number of offspring per litter. For
example, rate of milk transfer and heat production are mech-
anisms limiting investment within a reproductive bout
[15,45]. Habitats and ecology that cause higher extrinsic mor-
tality risk do not necessarily have higher or lower seasonal
predictability of food. If they do, the direction of selection
can be reversed. For example, Reznick et al. [49] found that
guppies in high predation sites evolved faster reproduction
when high predation environments had scarcer food, perhaps
because predators indirectly reduced net mortality by redu-
cing density and thus competition for food. In variable
environments, organisms that hedge their bets by dispersing
reproductive effort over a longer breeding season and have a
longer reproductive lifespan have a lower risk of failure
[11,45]. Orzack & Tuljapurkar [50] showed that unpredictable
environments could favour either high or low reproductive
output through their effect on reproductive costs.
In our study, rainfall seasonality was unrelated to annual
rainfall. Therefore, aspects of the environment that affect
whether iteroparity or semelparity is likely to lead to greater
fitness in females are at least partly disconnected from
aspects of the environment that affect whether females can
invest in large litters and whether mortality risk and repro-
ductive costs are likely to lead to higher fitness in females
that increase reproductive effort.
As predicted, a climate variable related to the predictabil-
ity of peaks in prey abundance (rainfall predictability) was
correlated with species position on the semelparity-iteropar-
ity axis, and a variable that alters food availability and
reflects energy limitation (annual rainfall) was associated
with variation in reproductive output. These findings con-
cord with some previous predictions in mammals and
other vertebrates. For example, in the mammal family Lepor-
idae (rabbits and hares) temperature seasonality predicted
71% of the global variation in litter size and body size, and
the authors interpreted this in terms of food limitation
caused by seasonality. Unpredictable timing of stressful
environmental conditions was associated with increased iter-
oparity, whereas nest predation rate predicted 55% of
variation in the timing trait of gestation duration [19]. In
endemic mammal families in Madagascar, iteroparity invol-
ving short intervals between breeding episodes, a long
breeding season, and high adult survival is common, and
this has been attributed to the particularly unpredictable
timing of rainfall on this island [11]. Comparing desert popu-
lations of a ground squirrel on a gradient of increasing
seasonal predictability, Whorley [20] also found that more
unpredictable rainfall was associated with longer breeding
seasons, lower synchrony, and smaller litter size. In Rose’s
mountain toadlet (Capensibufo rosei), 94% of variation in
toad lifespan between years is explained by variation in
breeding season rainfall. In dry years, survival is increased
and reproductive output is low, and in wet years, toads
increase reproduction at the expense of survival [51].
In dasyurids, we found that species with large litters were
more likely to occur in high rainfall habitats and to have
supernumerary births. Arid zone species rarely had
high: 4 160mm
Annual rainfall
low: 130 mm
Figure 4. The centroid point of the geographical range of dasyurid species included in this study and mean annual rainfall throughout Australia. Species are marked
with a Dif Colwell’s P is less than 0.7 (less seasonally predictable) and a Wif Colwell’s P is equal to or more than 0.7 (more seasonally predictable). For full species
names see table 1. Rainfall raster data were taken from Reside et al. [42].
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20181291
5
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
supernumerary young and often failed to have all teats occu-
pied by neonates, suggesting they cannot reliably obtain
enough food to produce excess young. We conclude that
energy or nutrient availability constrains female reproductive
output, consistent with many studies of limitations to repro-
ductive output in small mammals (e.g. [16,52–58]. For
example, Sibly & Brown [58] found that mass of mammal
neonate tissue was associated with reliable and abundant
food. However, seasonality is often also associated with
reproductive output, because seasonal environments have a
reliable annual pulse of abundant food, especially at high lati-
tudes. For example, offspring number often increases with
environmental seasonality in birds [59,60] and mammals,
including European lagomorphs [19], boars (Sus scrofa) [61],
and ground squirrels (Ammospermophilus leucurus) [20]. Simi-
lar trends have not been obvious in carnivorous and Southern
Hemisphere mammals at lower latitudes [62,63], with the
exception of Antechinus agilis in the relatively low latitude
of southern Australia [64]. Unlike seasonal Australian
environments, Northern Hemisphere habitats with severe
winters have large seasonal peaks in food availability relative
to the scarcest season [59].
We found that degree of iteroparity in female dasyurids
across the continent was correlated with predictability of rain-
fall and thus schedules of reliable food availability. Species in
environments with seasonally predictable rainfall were more
likely to be monoestrous, have shorter lifespans, and shorter
reproductive seasons. These species time reproduction so that
late lactation, which is energetically costly [56], coincides
with the peak in arthropod availability [22]. Female dasyur-
ids in regions of unpredictable rainfall live longer, are more
likely to be polyestrous, and have longer reproductive
seasons. The opportunity for multiple breeding attempts
over several years is likely to be adaptive if survival of
young is highly variable [12,65], as a long reproductive
period enables bet-hedging, which increases the likelihood
of some births during times of high food availability [66].
Bet-hedging strategies occur in plants (desert annuals)
[13], bees (Perdita portalis) [67], tortoises (Gopherus agassizii)
[68], primates [66], and many other taxa, which spread
their reproductive effort over multiple episodes in
unpredictable environments [65,69].
Patterns of rainfall explained significant variation in pro-
duction of young, lifespan, and length of the reproductive
season. However, there was still a large proportion of var-
iance unexplained by our models. These effects might be
mediated by competition and population density [70], temp-
erature [45], rates of age-specific predation [49,71–73], and
torpor [74], which would be promising future avenues for
further understanding of the mechanisms.
Data accessibility. The datasets supporting this article have been
uploaded as part of the electronic supplementary material.
Authors’ contributions. R.A.C. and D.O.F. created the database. R.A.C.
performed the analyses. R.A.C., D.O.F., and A.M.B. contributed to
the manuscript. All the authors gave their final approval for
publication.
Competing interests. We declare we have no competing interests.
Funding. This research is supported by the Australian Government’s
National Environmental Science Program through the Threatened
Species Recovery Hub and an Australian Research Council fellow-
ship, Grant/Award no. FTll0100191.
Acknowledgements. We thank Simon Blomberg for assistance with R
scripting and April Reside for assistance with mapping.
References
1. Brown JH, Sibly RM. 2006 Life-history evolution
under a production constraint. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci.
USA 103, 17 595 –17 599. (doi:10.1073/pnas.
0608522103)
2. Harvey PH. 1989 Life history variation in placental
mammals: unifying the data with theory. Oxf. Surv.
Evol. Biol. 6, 13– 31.
3. Gaillard J-M, Lemaı
ˆtre J-F, Berger V, Bonenfant C,
Devillard S, Douhard M, Gamelon M, Plard F,
Lebreton J-D. 2016 Life Histories, Axes of Variation.
In Encyclopedia of evolutionary biology,vol. 2 (ed.
RM Kliman), pp. 312 –323. Oxford: Academic Press.
4. Oli MK. 2004 The fast–slow continuum and
mammalian life-history patterns: an empirical
evaluation. Basic Appl. Ecol. 5, 449–463. (doi:10.
1016/j.baae.2004.06.002)
5. Bielby J, Mace GM, Bininda-Emonds OR, Cardillo M,
Gittleman JL, Jones KE, Orme CD, Purvis A. 2007
The fast-slow continuum in mammalian life history:
an empirical reevaluation. Am. Nat. 169, 748– 757.
6. Stearns SC. 1983 The influence of size and
phylogeny on patterns of covariation among life-
history traits in the mammals. Oikos 41, 173– 187.
(doi:10.2307/3544261)
7. Gaillard J-M, Pontier D, Allaine D, Lebreton J,
Trouvilliez J, Clobert J. 1989 An analysis of
demographic tactics in birds and mammals. Oikos
56, 59–76. (doi:10.2307/3566088)
8. Smith CC, Fretwell SD. 1974 The optimal balance
between size and number of offspring. Am. Nat.
108, 499–506. (doi:10.1086/282929)
9. Rollinson N, Hutchings JA. 2013 Environmental
quality predicts optimal egg size in the wild. Am.
Nat. 182, 76–90. (doi:10.1086/670648)
10. Salguero-Go
´mez R, Jones OR, Jongejans E,
Blomberg SP, Hodgson DJ, Mbeau-Ache C, Zuidema
PA, de Kroon H, Buckley YM. 2016 Fast– slow
continuum and reproductive strategies structure
plant life-history variation worldwide. Proc. Natl
Acad. Sci. USA 113, 230–235. (doi:10.1073/pnas.
1506215112)
11. Dewar RE, Richard AF. 2007 Evolution in the
hypervariable environment of Madagascar. Proc.
Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 13 723–13 727. (doi:10.
1073/pnas.0704346104)
12. Stearns SC. 1992 The evolution of life histories.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13. Venable DL. 2007 Bet hedging in a guild of desert
annuals. Ecology 88, 1086–1090. (doi:10.1890/06-
1495)
14. Sibly RM, Brown JH. 2009 Mammal reproductive
strategies driven by offspring mortality-size
relationships. Am. Nat. 173, E185– EE99. (doi:10.
1086/598680)
15. Kro
´l E, Johnson M, Speakman J. 2003 Limits to
sustained energy intake VIII. Resting metabolic rate
and organ morphology of laboratory mice lactating
at thermoneutrality. J. Exp. Biol. 206, 4283– 4291.
(doi:10.1242/jeb.00676)
16. Fisher DO, Owens IP, Johnson CN. 2001 The
ecological basis of life history variation in
marsupials. Ecology 82, 3531–3540. (doi:10.1890/
0012-9658(2001)082[3531:TEBOLH]2.0.CO;2)
17. Ellis BJ, Figueredo AJ, Brumbach BH, Schlomer GL.
2009 Fundamental dimensions of environmental
risk. Human Nat. 20, 204–268. (doi:10.1007/
s12110-009-9063-7)
18. Ricklefs RE. 2010 Life-history connections to rates of
aging in terrestrial vertebrates. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA
107, 10 314 –10 319. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1005862107)
19. Virgos E, Cabezas-Dı
´az S, Blanco-Aguiar JA. 2006
Evolution of life history traits in Leporidae: a test of
nest predation and seasonality hypotheses.
Biol. J. Linnean Soc. 88, 603–610. (doi:10.1111/j.
1095-8312.2006.00646.x)
20. Whorley JR, Kenagy G. 2007 Variation in
reproductive patterns of antelope ground squirrels,
Ammospermophilus leucurus, from Oregon to Baja
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20181291
6
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
California. J. Mammal. 88, 1404–1411. (doi:10.
1644/06-MAMM-A-382R.1)
21. Karsten KB, Andriamandimbiarisoa LN, Fox SF,
Raxworthy CJ. 2008 A unique life history
among tetrapods: an annual chameleon
living mostly as an egg. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci.
USA 105, 8980– 8984. (doi:10.1073/pnas.
0802468105)
22. Fisher DO, Dickman CR, Jones ME, Blomberg SP.
2013 Sperm competition drives the evolution of
suicidal reproduction in mammals. Proc. Natl Acad.
Sci. USA 110, 17 910 –17 914. (doi:10.1073/pnas.
1310691110)
23. Van Dyck S, Gynther I, Baker A. 2013 Field
companion to the mammals of Australia. Sydney,
N.S.W: New Holland Publishers.
24. Ward SJ. 1998 Numbers of teats and pre-and post-
natal litter sizes in small diprotodont marsupials.
J. Mammal. 79, 999–1008. (doi:10.2307/1383108)
25. Charnov EL, Schaffer WM. 1973 Life history
consequences of natural selection: Cole’s result
revisited. Am. Nat. 107, 791– 793. (doi:10.1086/
282877)
26. Krajewski C, Woolley PA, Westerman M. 2000 The
evolution of reproductive strategies in dasyurid
marsupials: implications of molecular phylogeny.
Biol. J. Linnean Soc. 71, 417–435. (doi:10.1111/j.
1095-8312.2000.tb01267.x)
27. Oakwood M, Bradley AJ, Cockburn A. 2001
Semelparity in a large marsupial. Proc.R.Soc.B
268, 407–411. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2000.1369)
28. Dickman C, Braithwaite R. 1992 Postmating
mortality of males in the Dasyurid Marsupials,
Dasyurus and Parantechinus.J. Mammal. 73,
143–147. (doi:10.2307/1381875)
29. Jones M, Dickman CR, Archer M. 2003 Predators
with pouches: the biology of carnivorous marsupials.
Collingwood, Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing.
30. Fisher DO, Blomberg SP. 2011 Costs of reproduction
and terminal investment by females in a
semelparous marsupial. PLoS ONE 6, e15226.
(doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015226)
31. Fisher DO, Nuske S, Green S, Seddon JM, McDonald
B. 2011 The evolution of sociality in small,
carnivorous marsupials: the lek hypothesis revisited.
Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 65, 593–605. (doi:10.1007/
s00265-010-1060-7)
32. Collett RA, Fisher DO. 2017 Time-lapse
camera trapping as an alternative to pitfall trapping
for estimating activity of leaf litter arthropods. Ecol.
Evol. 7, 7527– 7533. (doi:10.1002/ece3.3275)
33. Climate Data Online: Australian Government. 2016
[cited 2016]. See http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/
data/.
34. Colwell RK. 1974 Predictability, constancy, and
contingency of periodic phenomena. Ecology 55,
1148–1153. (doi:10.2307/1940366)
35. Johnson C. 1998 Rarity in the tropics: latitudinal
gradients in distribution and abundance in
Australian mammals. J. Anim. Ecol. 67, 689– 698.
(doi:10.1046/j.1365-2656.1998.00232.x)
36. Paradis E, Claude J, Strimmer K. 2004 APE: analyses
of phylogenetics and evolution in R language.
Bioinformatics 20, 289– 290. (doi:10.1093/
bioinformatics/btg412)
37. Pinheiro J, Bates D, DebRoy S, Sarkar D. 2018 Linear
and Nonlinear Mixed Effects Models.
38. May-Collado LJ, Kilpatrick CW, Agnarsson I. 2015
Mammals from ‘down under’: a multi-gene species-
level phylogeny of marsupial mammals (Mammalia.
Metatheria). PeerJ 3, e805. (doi:10.7717/peerj.805)
39. Symonds MR, Blomberg SP. 2014 A primer on
phylogenetic generalised least squares. In Modern
phylogenetic comparative methods and their
application in evolutionary biology. pp. 105– 130.
Berlin, Germany: Springer.
40. Grafen A. 1989 The phylogenetic regression. Phil.
Trans. R. Soc. B 326, 119– 157. (doi:10.1098/rstb.
1989.0106)
41. Nagelkerke NJ. 1991 A note on a general definition
of the coefficient of determination. Biometrika 78,
691–692. (doi:10.1093/biomet/78.3.691)
42. Reside AE, VanDerWal J, Kutt AS. 2012 Projected
changes in distributions of Australian tropical
savanna birds under climate change using three
dispersal scenarios. Ecol. Evol. 2, 705–718. (doi:10.
1002/ece3.197)
43. Dunlop JN, Saule M. 1982 The habitat and life
history of the Pilbara ningaui Ningaui timealeyi.
Rec. West. Aust. Mus. 10, 47–52.
44. Read D. 1995 Gile’s planigale. In The Australian
museum complete book of Australian mammals (ed.
R Strahan), pp. 107–109. Sydney, Australia: Reed
Books.
45. Speakman JR, Kro
´l E. 2010 The heat dissipation
limit theory and evolution of life histories in
endotherms—time to dispose of the disposable
soma theory? Integr. Comp. Biol. 50, 793–807.
(doi:10.1093/icb/icq049)
46. Selman C, Blount JD, Nussey DH, Speakman JR.
2012 Oxidative damage, ageing, and life-history
evolution: where now? Trends Ecol. Evol. 27,
570–577. (doi:10.1016/j.tree.2012.06.006)
47. Kirkwood TB, Holliday R. 1979 The evolution of
ageing and longevity. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 205,
531–546. (doi:10.1098/rspb.1979.0083)
48. Healy K et al. 2014 Ecology and mode-of-life
explain lifespan variation in birds and mammals.
Proc. R. Soc. B 281, 20140298. (doi:10.1098/rspb.
2014.0298)
49. Reznick DN, Bryant MJ, Roff D, Ghalambor CK,
Ghalambor DE. 2004 Effect of extrinsic mortality on
the evolution of senescence in guppies. Nature 431,
1095. (doi:10.1038/nature02936)
50. Orzack S H, Tuljapurkar S. 2001 Reproductive effort
in variable environments, or environmental
variation is for the birds. Ecology 82, 2659–2665.
(doi:10.2307/2679944)
51. Becker FS, Tolley KA, Measey GJ, Altwegg R. 2018
Extreme climate-induced life-history plasticity in an
amphibian. Am. Nat. 191, 250–258. (doi:10.1086/
695315)
52. Nilsen EB, Gaillard JM, Andersen R, Odden J,
Delorme D, Van Laere G, Linnell JD. 2009 A slow life
in hell or a fast life in heaven: demographic
analyses of contrasting roe deer populations.
J. Anim. Ecol. 78, 585–594. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-
2656.2009.01523.x)
53. Clutton-Brock TH. 1984 Reproductive effort and
terminal investment in iteroparous animals. Am.
Nat. 123, 212– 229. (doi:10.1086/284198)
54. Descamps S, Boutin S, McAdam AG, Berteaux D,
Gaillard J-M. 2009 Survival costs of reproduction
vary with age in North American red squirrels.
Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 1129–1135. (doi:10.1098/rspb.
2008.1401)
55. Clutton-Brock TH, Guinness FE, Albon SD. 1982 Red
deer: behavior and ecology of two sexes. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago press.
56. Cody ML. 1966 A general theory of clutch size.
Evolution 20, 174– 184. (doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.
1966.tb03353.x)
57. Williams GC. 1966 Natural selection, the costs of
reproduction, and a refinement of Lack’s principle.
Am. Nat. 100, 687– 690. (doi:10.1086/282461)
58. Sibly RM, Brown JH. 2007 Effects of body size and
lifestyle on evolution of mammal life histories. Proc.
Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 17 707 –17 712. (doi:10.
1073/pnas.0707725104)
59. Ashmole NP. 1963 The regulation of numbers of
tropical oceanic birds. Ibis 103, 458–473.
60. Badyaev AV, Ghalambor CK. 2001 Evolution of life
histories along elevational gradients: trade-off
between parental care and fecundity. Ecology 82,
2948–2960. (doi:10.1890/0012-
9658(2001)082[2948:EOLHAE]2.0.CO;2)
61. Bywater KA, Apollonio M, Cappai N, Stephens PA.
2010 Litter size and latitude in a large mammal:
the wild boar Sus scrofa.Mamm. Rev. 40,
212–220.
62. Lord Jr RD. 1960 Litter size and latitude in North
American mammals. Am. Midland Nat. 64,
488–499. (doi:10.2307/2422677)
63. Bunnell F, Tait D. 1981 Population dynamics of
bears—implications. Dynamics of large mammal
populations, pp. 75– 98. New York, NY: John Wiley
and Sons.
64. Beckman J, Banks SC, Sunnucks P, Lill A, Taylor AC.
2007 Phylogeography and environmental correlates
of a cap on reproduction: teat number in a small
marsupial, Antechinus agilis.Mol. Ecol. 16,
1069– 1083. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.03209.x)
65. Congdon J, Dunham A, Tinkle D. 1982 Energy
budgets and life histories of reptiles. In Biology of
the Reptilia (eds C Gans, FH Pough), pp. 233–271.
New York, NY: Academic Press.
66. Jones JH. 2011 Primates and the evolution of long,
slow life histories. Curr. Biol. 21, R708– RR17.
(doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.08.025)
67. Danforth BN. 1999 Emergence dynamics and bet
hedging in a desert bee, Perdita portalis.
Proc. R. Soc. B 266, 1985–1994. (doi:10.1098/rspb.
1999.0876)
68. Lovich JE, Ennen JR, Yackulic CB, Meyer-Wilkins K,
Agha M, Loughran C, Bjurlin C, Austin M, Madrak S.
2015 Not putting all their eggs in one basket: bet-
hedging despite extraordinary annual reproductive
output of desert tortoises. Biol. J. Linnean Soc. 115,
399–410. (doi:10.1111/bij.12505)
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20181291
7
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
69. Stearns SC. 1976 Life-history tactics: a review of
the ideas. Q. Rev. Biol. 51, 3–47. (doi:10.1086/
409052)
70. Gaillard J-M, Festa-Bianchet M, Yoccoz NG. 1998
Population dynamics of large herbivores: variable
recruitment with constant adult survival. Trends
Ecol. Evol. 13, 58–63. (doi:10.1016/S0169-
5347(97)01237-8)
71. Wilkinson GS, South JM. 2002 Life history,
ecology and longevity in bats. Aging Cell
1, 124–131. (doi:10.1046/j.1474-9728.2002.
00020.x)
72. Reznick DA, Bryga H, Endler JA. 1990
Experimentally induced life-history evolution in a
natural population. Nature 346, 357. (doi:10.1038/
346357a0)
73. Ghalambor CK, Martin TE. 2001 Fecundity-survival
trade-offs and parental risk-taking in birds. Science
292, 494–497. (doi:10.1126/science.1059379)
74. Turbill C, Bieber C, Ruf T. 2011 Hibernation is
associated with increased survival and the
evolution of slow life histories among mammals.
Proc.R.Soc.B278, 3355 – 3363. (doi:10.1098/
rspb.2011.0190)
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc. R. Soc. B 285: 20181291
8
on November 1, 2018http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/Downloaded from
- A preview of this full-text is provided by The Royal Society.
- Learn more
Preview content only
Content available from Proceedings of the Royal Society B
This content is subject to copyright.