For almost 40 years, studies of whole-organism performance have formed a cornerstone of
evolutionary physiology. Although its utility as a heuristic guide is beyond question, and we …

Life‐history theory predicts that investment of acquired energetic resources to a particular
trait denies those same resources from being allocated to a different trait, resulting in life …

Allocation of acquired resources to phenotypic traits is affected by resource availability and
current selective context. While differential investment in traits is well documented, the …

Trait compensation denotes the situation in which individuals offset the costs of one trait with
the benefits of another trait. The phenomenon of trait compensation is best exemplified by a …

Reptiles, like other vertebrates, rely on immunity to defend themselves from infection. The
energetic cost of an immune response is liable to scale with infection severity, prompting …

Wounding events (predation attempts, competitive combat) result in injuries and/or infections
that induce integrated immune responses for the recovery process. Despite the survival …

Maternal nutrition can strongly influence embryo development and offspring fitness. The
environmental matching hypothesis posits that developmental conditions affect offspring in …

Trade‐offs in performance expression occur because animals must perform multiple whole‐
organism performance tasks that place conflicting demands on shared underlying …

Male–male aggressive encounters in lizards may involve physical confrontation or the use of
multiple cues to signal fighting ability. Behavioral, chromatic, and morphological traits may …

Warning coloration is a widespread strategy to alert predators about prey unprofitability. The
success of this strategy partly depends on predators being able to learn and recognize …