Research on adaptation, evolution should consider life-history trade-offs alongside organism performance capacities

For nearly 40 years, one of the cornerstones of the study of adaptation has been the examination of "whole-organism performance capacities"—essentially, measures of the dynamic things animals do: how fast they can run; how hard they can bite; how far, fast, and high they can jump; and so on. Together, these functional attributes determine the performance of a species' ecology: the types of food one can eat; the ability to capture or locate prey; the ability to avoid predation; the ability of males to intimidate or, in some cases, prevent rival males from invading a territory; and many more.

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