Big and tall parents have more sons: further generalizations of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis

Kanazawa, Satoshi ORCID: 0000-0003-3786-8797 (2005) Big and tall parents have more sons: further generalizations of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 235 (4). pp. 583-590. ISSN 0022-5193

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Abstract

This paper proposes the generalized Trivers–Willard hypothesis (gTWH), which suggests that parents who possess any heritable trait which increases male reproductive success at a greater rate than female reproductive success in a given environment will have a higher-than-expected offspring sex ratio, and parents who possess any heritable trait which increases female reproductive success at a greater rate than male reproductive success in a given environment will have a lower-than-expected offspring sex ratio. Since body size (height and weight) is a highly heritable trait which increases male (but not female) reproductive success, the paper hypothesizes that bigger and taller parents have more sons. The analysis of both surviving children and recent pregnancies among respondents of the National Child Development Survey and the British Cohort Survey largely supports the hypothesis.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/yjtbi
Additional Information:	© 2005 Elsevier
Divisions:	Management
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QH Natural history > QH426 Genetics
Date Deposited:	04 Sep 2008 15:58
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 22:51
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/16170

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