#life history theory

Tagged life history theory · show all articles

A doubly-labelled-water dosing bench in a bright field laboratory, a capped dose bottle standing in its rack beside a pipette stand and a digital balance mid-reading, a chest sample freezer with a pulled-open lid standing behind it in soft focus

The Longest Childhood: Life-History Theory and the Grandmother Bet

Humans wean their young almost twice as fast as chimpanzees, take five extra years to start reproducing, and then spend a third of adult life past fertility. Three rival explanations compete for that arithmetic, and none of them has won outright.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 29, 2026 · 23 min read

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