Evolutionary biology is poised for a third major synthesis. The first presented Darwin's evidence from natural history. The second incorporated genetic mechanisms. The third will be based on energy and biophysical processes. It should include the equal fitness paradigm (EFP), which quantifies how organisms convert biomass into surviving offspring. Natural selection tends to maximise energetic fitness, , where is mass‐specific rate of cohort biomass production, is generation time, is fraction of cohort production that is passed to surviving offspring, and is energy density of biomas. At steady state, parents replace themselves with offspring of equal mass‐specific energy content, ≈ 22.4 kJ/g, and biomass, ≈ 1 g/g. The EFP highlights: (i) the energetic basis of survival and reproduction; (ii) how natural selection acts directly on the parameters of ; (iii) why there is no inherent intrinsic fitness advantage for higher metabolic power, ontogenetic or population growth rate, fecundity, longevity, or resource use efficiency; and (iv) the role of energy in animals with a variety of life histories. Underlying the spectacular diversity of living things is pervasive similarity in how energy is acquired from the environment and used to leave descendants offspring in future generations.

中文翻译：

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生命、死亡和能量：大自然选择什么？


进化生物学准备进行第三次重大综合。第一个提出了达尔文从自然历史中得出的证据。第二个结合了遗传机制。第三个将基于能源和生物物理过程。它应该包括平等适应度范式 （EFP），它量化了生物体如何将生物量转化为幸存的后代。自然选择倾向于最大限度地提高能量适应性，其中 是队列生物量产生的质量特异性速率，是生成时间，是传递给幸存后代的队列产量的分数，是生物群的能量密度。在稳态下，亲本用同等质量比能量含量 ≈ 22.4 kJ/g、生物量 ≈ 1 g/g 的后代替换自己。EFP 强调：（i） 生存和繁殖的能量基础;（ii） 自然选择如何直接作用于 ;（iii） 为什么更高的代谢能力、个体发育或种群增长率、繁殖力、寿命或资源利用效率没有内在的内在适应性优势;（iv） 能量在具有不同生活史的动物中的作用。生物惊人多样性的背后是如何从环境中获取能源并用于为后代留下后代的普遍相似性。