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Food environments shape the way mortality influences life-history trajectories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2025

Paula Sheppard Open the ORCID record for Paula Sheppard [Opens in a new window]
Paula Sheppard*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6PE, UK paula.sheppard@anthro.ox.ac.uk
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

The relationship between local extrinsic mortality rates and the timing of life-history milestones can be better understood when examined through food environments rather than by population “types,” like small-scale societies or high-income countries. By mapping observed life-history variation onto food environments, which mediate the fundamental relationship between mortality and fertility, the explanatory value of a 2-tiered model becomes less compelling.

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Open Peer Commentary
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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e122
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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