Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Measurement of Lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: January 7, 2013
Food environments shape the way mortality influences life-history trajectories
1University of Oxfordhttps://ror.org/052gg0110, Oxford, OX2 6PE, UK paula.sheppard@anthro.ox.ac.uk.
None:
The relationship between local extrinsic mortality rates and the timing of life-history milestones can be better understood when examined through food environments rather than by population "types," like small-scale societies or high-income countries. By mapping observed life-history variation onto food environments, which mediate the fundamental relationship between mortality and fertility, the explanatory value of a 2-tiered model becomes less compelling.
Related Concept Videos
Life Histories
Applications of Life Tables
Optimal Foraging
Energy Budgets
Life Tables
Causes of Social Behavior III: Biological and Environmental Influences

