Radford Neal wrote:
> Higher mortality for males would be relevant only if they die early,
> before the parents have invested much in them, making males cheaper to
> raise on average. The fact that one man can impregnate many women is
> irrelevant. Few men and many women might be advantageous for the
> species, but selection for such things takes place at the level of
> genes, not species.
I think this is true. Males have particularly high early mortality rates. One
big contributor is accident rates. Males are more likely to get run over,
drown etc. at an early age than females.
Thom
===========================================================================
This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, people lacking respect
for other members of the list send messages that are inappropriate
or unrelated to the list's discussion topics. Please just delete the
offensive email.
For information concerning the list, please see the following web page:
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
===========================================================================
