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Natural selection and the sex ratio
Author(s) -
BODMER W. F.,
EDWARDS A. W. F.
Publication year - 1960
Publication title -
annals of human genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.537
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1469-1809
pISSN - 0003-4800
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1960.tb01735.x
Subject(s) - sex ratio , natural selection , selection (genetic algorithm) , natural population growth , biology , population , statistics , offspring , sex selection , reproductive value , demography , evolutionary biology , econometrics , mathematics , genetics , computer science , artificial intelligence , pregnancy , sociology
Summary We have put Fisher's theory of the control of the sex ratio by Natural Selection on an analytic basis. This has enabled us to derive an expression for the selective advantage attached to reproduction with a given sex ratio, and to show that this depends on the sex ratio at the end of the period in which the offspring incur expenditure by their parents. It is this sex ratio which is probably stabilized near the value one‐half by Natural Selection. The rate of approach of a population to its equilibrium sex ratio depends on the available genetic variance in the sex ratio, and since this is probably small, evolutionary changes in the sex ratio of natural populations will almost certainly be too slow to detect.