Phenological resonance and quantum life history

The principle of ‘quantum life history’ is proposed here as a complementary viewpoint to current modeling of body size and life history evolution which usually considers a ‘fast–slow continuum’ of covarying life history traits. This principle emphasizes the discrete (and primary) nature of development time caused by the effect of phenological resonance (the compliance of development time with periodicities of earth rotation). The body mass, in turn, complies with development time, which generates body mass attractors. This principle is illustrated with mammals as exemplary group. The adaptive radiation of Cenozoic mammals is supposed to proceed as a competition-driven diversification of body sizes and development times around the strongest (year-long) resonant mode of development time corresponding to body mass of about 1 kg. Mammals with this body mass are shown here to have a largest genome size and a lowest (body mass-corrected) basal metabolic rate. This extends the previously reported negative relation between genome size and metabolic rate to the realm of nonlinearity, and suggests that selection against the accumulation of non-coding DNA in the genome is relaxed in mammals with this body mass.