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Updated: Jan 22, 2026

Measurement of Survival Time in Brachionus Rotifers: Synchronization of Maternal Conditions
Published on: July 22, 2016
Generation Time Measures the Trade-Off between Survival and Reproduction in a Life Cycle
Abstract:
Survival and fertility are the two most basic components of fitness, and they drive the evolution of a life cycle. A trade-off between them is usually present: when survival increases, fertility decreases-and vice versa. Here we show that at an evolutionary optimum, the generation time is a measure of the strength of the trade-off between overall survival and overall fertility in a life cycle. Our result both helps to explain the known fact that the generation time describes the speed of living in the slow-fast continuum of life cycles and may have implications for the extrapolation from model organisms of longevity to humans.
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