Question

All of the subsequent are characteristics of r-strategists except.
A) Short life span
B) Large offspring
C) Little parental care for offspring
D) Reproduce early in life
E) Produce many offspring
F)None of the above

Answer 1

The number of offspring an organism leaves behind that survive to reproduce is used to calculate its Darwinian fitness. It makes no difference in evolutionary terms if an organism is a fine, fully mature, physical specimen, or the dominant member of the herd, or even if an individual produces a large number of young but none of them survive.

Complete answer:
Species that are highly r-selected are at one end of the spectrum. The letter r stands for reproduction. Such a species invests only a small amount of resources in each offspring, but produces a large number of such low-effort babies.
The characteristics of r strategists are :
1. Population incorporates a short type of generation.
2. No care is given to the offspring.
3. Population never reaches its reproductive potential, then reproduces early in life.
4. More offspring can be produced than those can survive.
Hence, large offspring aren't the characteristics of r-strategists.

Among the traits when thought to the characterize of r-selection are the high fecundity, the small body size, the early maturity onset, the short generation time, and therefore the ability to disperse offspring widely. Organisms whose life history is subject to r-selection are often said as r-strategists or r-selected.

The r selected species board populations that are highly variable. The fittest individuals in those environments are having many offspring and they also reproduce early. K selected species also tend to possess the fewest offspring, so their populations cannot recover as fast from a disturbance like over hunting or fire.

R-selected species are also called as the r-strategist, species whose populations are governed by their biotic potential and the (maximum reproductive capacity, r). Wilson; K-selected species—that is, species whose population sizes fluctuate at or near their carrying capacity (K)—make up the second strategy.
Thus, All of the subsequent are characteristics of r-strategists except large offspring.

Therefore the correct answer is option ‘F’.

Note: The terms of r-selection and K-selection are utilized by the ecologists and to explain the expansion and reproduction strategies of organisms.K-selected species exhibit traits associated with living at close to carrying capacity densities and are typically strong competitors in such crowded niches, investing more heavily in fewer offspring, each of which has a relatively high probability of surviving to adulthood (i.e., low r, high K). r-selected species are occasionally referred to as "opportunistic" in scientific literature, whereas K-selected species are described as "equilibrium"