Answered

You have learned about the three different survivorship curves. Choose a species of your interest. Research and discuss its life history. Based on your findings, what type of survivorship curve (type I, II, or III) do you think this species has? Explain how the graph below gives evidence to your findings.



Answer :

Answer and Explanation: Humans have a type 1 survivorship curve. This type of curve is characterized by an organism whose mortality rate remains relatively low as it develops, but this mortality rate rapidly increases as the organism reaches old age.

Humans have a type 1 survivorship curve because we have very few young at once, but we care a great deal for them. By doing so, we can ensure that our young have a high chance of surviving and developing into adults. In addition, since humans are very social creatures, we take care of each other while living in groups to ensure that everyone lives healthy and long lives.

However, once we have passed the point of sexual maturity, our health begins degrading rapidly as we age. This is because nature has little use for an individual that is unable to reproduce any longer, thus resulting in numerous health problems compounding as we age due to our degrading DNA sequences. Furthermore, in the eyes of nature, elderly individuals are using resources that could be better allocated to more fertile young. Thus, our mortality rate greatly increases as we age due to their being no evolutionary pressure for us to continue living beyond reproductive maturity for much longer.