Re: Herbivore protection

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

John Bois wrote:
> 
> > Beware of "post hoc ergo propter hoc."  Modern large herbivores are all
> > mammals.  I can't think of any herbivorous mammal larger than a warthog
> > that produces more than one or two young per year.  I wonder if a large
> > viviparous animal *could* produce more than one or two young per year.
> > K-strategy may be a less-than-optimal strategy that was forced on large
> > mammals by other aspects of their physiology.
> 
> I don't know of any reason why a wildebeest couldn't have many small
> babies rather than one big one.  I would be really interested to find out
> though if there is such a physiological constraint.  

Could increasing size/complexity, and the matching increase in time
required _in vitro_, be a problem?  There certainly appears to be an
inverse relationship in mammals between size of adult and number of
offspring.  

-- JSW