摘要: Optimality is the concept that maximizing fitness represents a tradeoff between conflicting selection pressures, typically producing intermediate values of traits. For phenotypes, the outcome of conflicting selection can be analyzed with models such as optimal foraging theory and optimal clutch size. From a genetic perspective, optimization can involve stabilizing selection on a single trait, or opposing selection acting on different but genetically correlated traits. Optimality can be viewed in the context of Wright’s adaptive topography; in the simplest case, there is a single optimal phenotype, represented as a single peak. More realistic situations correspond to an adaptive topography with multiple peaks separated by valleys.