Genetic relatedness to sisters children has been underestimated

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Publication Type pre-print
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Anthropology
Creator Rogers, Alan R.
Title Genetic relatedness to sisters children has been underestimated
Date 2013-01-01
Description Males of many species help in the care and provisioning of offspring, and these investments often correlate with genetic relatedness. For example, many human males invest in the children of sisters, and this is especially so where men are less likely to share genes with children of wives. Although this makes qualitative sense, it has been difficult to support quantitatively. The prevailing model predicts investment in children of sisters only when paternity confidence falls below 0:268. This value is often seen as too low to be credible; so investment in sisters' children represents an unsolved problem. I show here that the prevailing model rests on a series of restrictive assumptions that underestimate relatedness to sisters' children. For this reason, it understates the fitness payoff to men who invest in these children. This effect can be substantial, especially in societies with low confidence in paternity. But this effect cannot be estimated solely from confidence in paternity. One must also estimate the probability that two siblings share the same father.
Type Text
Publisher Royal Society Publishing
Volume 280
Issue 1751
First Page 1
Last Page 6
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Rogers, A. R. (2013). Genetic relatedness to sisters children has been underestimated. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1751), 1-6.
Rights Management (c)Royal Society ; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1937 ; http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1751/20121937
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 420,854 bytes
Identifier uspace,18150
ARK ark:/87278/s6157s4h
Setname ir_uspace
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Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6157s4h