کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
943481 925474 2008 5 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
Offspring are lighter at birth and smaller in adulthood when born after a brother versus a sister in humans
موضوعات مرتبط
علوم زیستی و بیوفناوری علوم کشاورزی و بیولوژیک بوم شناسی، تکامل، رفتار و سامانه شناسی
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
Offspring are lighter at birth and smaller in adulthood when born after a brother versus a sister in humans
چکیده انگلیسی

In mammals, including humans, it is more costly to produce sons than it is to produce daughters, with maternal survival and subsequent reproductive success diminished more by producing male over female offspring. It is therefore predicted that offspring who are produced by mothers who have previously produced sons versus daughters will be compromised by the relatively high cost their mother incurred in the previous reproductive episode. Such effects are potentially important because characters that determine offspring survival and fecundity ultimately contribute to maternal fitness. Using questionnaire-based data from a contemporary human population, I show that birthweight (irrespective of their sex) is lower in individuals born after an elder brother than in those born after an elder sister. In addition, I show that both men and women who were born after a male versus a female sibling have reduced adulthood height, a known correlate of reproductive success in both sexes. The results suggest that producing sons may have a negative effect on the fitness of subsequent offspring, which has implications for calculations of maternal fitness and for optimal sex allocation.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Evolution and Human Behavior - Volume 29, Issue 3, May 2008, Pages 196–200
نویسندگان
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