I’m going to try and do this formally once I’ve got more information theory under my belt, but I suspect that a very large portion of the “deaths” needed to sustain information in a population of large animals actually occur in gametes and embryos. Both human eggs and sperm for instance undergo a competition process that selects the best, and pre-implantation lethality in embryos is extremely common—which is one of the reasons for humans’ very low fertility rate.
I’m going to try and do this formally once I’ve got more information theory under my belt, but I suspect that a very large portion of the “deaths” needed to sustain information in a population of large animals actually occur in gametes and embryos. Both human eggs and sperm for instance undergo a competition process that selects the best, and pre-implantation lethality in embryos is extremely common—which is one of the reasons for humans’ very low fertility rate.