The evolution of human life history

Abstract

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.

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