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Evolution of Rotifer Life Histories

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Abstract

When compared to most other multicellular animals, rotifers are all relatively small, short-lived and fast-reproducing organisms. However among and within different rotifer species there is a large variation in life history patterns. This review accounts for such variation in rotifers, with a strong focus on monogonont rotifers. As the life cycle of monogonont rotifers involves both asexual and sexual reproduction, life history patterns can be examined on the level of the genetic individual, which includes all asexual females, sexual females and males that originated from one resting egg. This concept has been applied successfully in many areas, for example in predicting optimal levels of mictic reproduction or sex allocation theory. The benefits and implications of the view of the genetic individual are discussed in detail. Rotifer life histories can also be viewed on the level of physiological individuals. A large part of this review deals with the life histories of individual amictic females and addresses life history traits like body size, egg size and resource allocation patterns. It asks which trade-offs exist among those traits, how these traits change under the influence of environmental factors like food availability or temperature, and whether these changes can be interpreted as adaptive.

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  1. Department of Evolutionary Biology,Institute of Animal Evolution and Ecology, Westphalian Wilhelms-University Münster, Hüfferstrasse 1, D-48149 , Münster, Germany

    Claus-Peter Stelzer

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Stelzer, CP. Evolution of Rotifer Life Histories. Hydrobiologia 546, 335–346 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-005-4243-x

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