Causality in the natural selection of the population ecological life histories of birds

Lars Witting

Abstract: Contingent life history theory explains evolution backwards by analysing the fitness consequences of trade-offs and constraints in the evolved species of today, bypassing the essential challenge of predicting evolution forwardly by the cause and effect of natural selection. I do the latter to decompose the population ecological life histories of 11,187 species of birds. This shows how the selection of mass accounts for inter-specific variation, with 76% of the within order variance, and 72% of the between order differences, in the body mass, demography, and population ecological traits being reconciled by the response of population dynamic feedback selection to variation in net energy, mortality, and intra-specific interactive competition.