eli5 what determines if an animal will have 1 offspring or an entire litter?
In: 3
Evolution. The number of offspring is the number with the best success rate, success being measured by how many of those offspring make it to reproduce themselves. If a mother has 10 babies, and she can’t feed them, protect them, whatever, and only 1 survives, she passes her “have 10 babies” gene on to 1 offspring. If another mom of the same species has 3 kids and is able to raise 2, she passed her “smaller litter” gene on to twice as many babies. Over many generations the number will trend to the ideal for that environment.
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