Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1)

Month of birth predicted reproductive success and fitness in pre-modern Canadian women




Julkaisun tekijätLummaa V, Tremblay M

KustantajaROYAL SOC

Julkaisuvuosi2003

JournalProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimiPROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Lehden akronyymiP ROY SOC B-BIOL SCI

Volyymi270

Julkaisunumero1531

Aloitussivu2355

Lopetussivun numero2361

Sivujen määrä7

ISSN0962-8452

DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2003.2507


Tiivistelmä
Conditions experienced during early development affect human health and survival in adulthood, but whether such effects have consequences for fitness is not known. One surrogate for early conditions is month of birth, which is known to influence health and survival in many human populations. We show that in nineteenth century Canada, month of birth predicted a woman's fitness measured by the number of grandchildren produced, with the genetic contribution to the following generations by women born in different months differing by over seven grandchildren. This difference was mainly caused by differences in the reproductive rates of both mothers and their offspring, rather than differences in their survival. Women born in the best months of the year had longer reproductive lifespans, larger numbers of live births and raised more offspring to adulthood than those who were born in the worst months. Furthermore, the offspring of those women born in the best months also had greater reproductive rates, suggesting that month of birth also influenced a mother's ability to invest in her offspring. Our results suggest that early conditions may have important consequences for human lifetime reproductive performance within and between generations, and that timing of birth had large effects on fitness in this rural community.


Last updated on 2021-24-06 at 11:33