A Potted History
Darwin (1871, 1874) realised that the preponderance of unbiased sex ratios posed a problem for his theory of natural selection. He made a start at developing possible explanations, but was unsatisfied and left the problem for future generations. This problem was solved decisively by Fisher (1930), who showed that selection for an unbiased sex ratio follows from the fact each offspring has a mother and father, and so males and females make equal genetic contributions to the next generation. Importantly, Fisher clarified the frequency dependent nature of selection on sex allocation that is at the centre of all subsequent developments.
Read more about this topic: Sex Allocation
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)