The evolution of human life history
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3919899 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Catherine Key (corresponding author), Catherine A Key |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 329-350 |
| Publication date | 2000-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | World Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/713781498 |
| PMID | 16475294 |
| OpenAlex | W4236274834 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 64 |
Humans have an extended life history, involving long periods of growth and development, a late age at maturity, a long life span and an extensive female post-reproductive period. In contrast to this, human lactation length is short and energetically inexpensive when compared to lactation in the apes. Discussions of human life-history often focus on the energetic costs of large brain size. This paper argues that body size is an equally important life history characteristic that can critically affect the energetic costs of producing and rearing offspring. Energetic models are used to show that the Australopithecus-Homo transition would have involved a 50 per cent increase in female energetic costs, purely because of increases in female body size. It is proposed that a human-like life-history strategy evolved in order to offset this increase in costs by reducing the energetic demands of lactation. This change in life-history pattern is likely to have necessitated changes in social structure, including increased participation of females (other than the mother) and adult males in the provisioning of offspring. Keywords: HomininBody SizeEnergetic CostsLife HistoryLactation
Archaeology · Biology · Evolutionary biology · Genealogy · Geography · Human evolution · Human life · Lactation · Life history · Life history theory · Offspring · Pregnancy · Reproduction · Sociology · Anthropology · Demography · Ecology · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
The Bioarchaeology of Children
Weaning behaviour in human evolution
Children and innovation
Energetic consequences of being a Homo erectus female
Women have stronger legs and other side‐effects of human body proportions
Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology
A Papionin Multilevel Society as a Model for Hominin Social Evolution
The Neanderthals
Plasticity in Human Life History Strategy
Bigger Brains Led to Bigger Bodies
Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory
Climate and Demography in Early Prehistory
Direct Male Care and Hominin Evolution
The Kung San
Toward A Life History of the Hominidae
Tools, language, and cognition in human evolution
Showing off
The Western Black-And-White Colobus as a Low-Energy Strategist
Grandmothering, menopause, and the evolution of human life histories
Energy Allocation in Mammalian Reproduction
Ecology, nutrition, and timing of reproductive events in an Asian primate, the Hanuman langur ( Presbytis entellus )
Growth, weaning and maternal investment from a comparative perspective
Ecology and energetics of encephalization in hominid evolution
Dental development in Australopithecus and early Homo
The Human Genus
Hunting income patterns among the Hadza
The Shanidar Neandertals
Criteria of reproductive success
Energetics and population ecology of Siberian herders
Parental Investment and Sexual Selection
Evolutionary perspectives on human nutrition
Environmental variation and developmental rate among free ranging yellow baboons ( Papio cynocephalus )
Relative energetic cost of infant care in small‐bodied neotropical primates and its relation to infant‐care patterns
Caloric requirements of human populations
Motherhood and subsistence work
Short adolescence in early hominids
Why do female primates have such long lifespans and so few babies? or Life in the slow lane
How big were early hominids
Resting metabolic rate and daily energy expenditure among two indigenous Siberian populations
Physical activity, energy stores, and seasonal energy balance among men and women in Nepali households
Evolution of the human life cycle
Life history patterns of new world monkeys
Longitudinal patterns of reproduction in wild female siamang (Hylobates syndactylus) and white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar)
Body size and proportions in early hominids
Paleopediatrics
Dental development and the evolution of life history in Hominidae
A comparison of the NariokotomeHomo erectus with juveniles from a modern human population
Age at death of the Neanderthal child from Devil's Tower, Gibraltar and the implications for studies of general growth and development in Neanderthals
Pathology and the posture of the La Chapelle‐aux‐Saints Neandertal
The locomotor anatomy of Australopithecus afarensis
Birth spacing patterns in humans and apes
The role of time and timing in hominid dental evolution
Why Hunter-Gatherers Work
The biological and chronological maturation of early hominids
Climate and body shape in hominid evolution
The costs of becoming a predator
Early hominid evolution and ecological change through the African Plio-Pleistocene
The thermoregulatory advantages of heat storage and shade-seeking behaviour to hominids foraging in equatorial savannah environments
Body mass in comparative primatology
The evolution of premature reproductive senescence and menopause in human females
Evolutionary hypotheses for human childhood
Comparative primate energetics and hominid evolution
The Incidence of Enamel Hypoplasia among the Krapina Neandertals
Chimpanzee and Human Cultures
The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,54 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2024 (23) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |