Harvey P H, Zammuto R M
Nature. 1985;315(6017):319-20. doi: 10.1038/315319a0.
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 size, but differences in patterns of mortality experienced by natural populations are expected to have major effects on selection for age at first reproduction. 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.
不同哺乳动物物种的雌性首次繁殖的年龄存在很大差异。最近的比较分析集中在首次繁殖年龄与体型之间的关系上，但自然种群经历的死亡率模式差异预计会对首次繁殖年龄的选择产生重大影响。在这里，我们表明，在去除体型影响后，自然种群中生活的哺乳动物物种内部和物种之间，雌性首次繁殖的年龄与出生时的预期寿命密切相关。
