Costs of reproduction in a historical perspective

Costs of reproduction constitute a core assumption of life history theory. After reformulation by G.C. Williams, the cost hypothesis soon became a major foundation of phenotypic life history models. More-recent studies have approached reproductive costs from the perspective of quantitative genetics. Here, we present a brief historical perspective to the development of the cost of reproduction hypothesis. We evaluate the status and heuristic value of the different approaches, and outline how the approaches have originated.