Testing evolutionary hypotheses about human biological adaptation using cross-cultural comparison

被引:26
作者
Mace, R [1 ]
Jordan, F [1 ]
Holden, C [1 ]
机构
[1] UCL, Dept Anthropol, London WC1E 6BT, England
来源
COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY A-MOLECULAR & INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY | 2003年 / 136卷 / 01期
基金
英国惠康基金;
关键词
comparative method; human sex ratio; lactose tolerance; phylogeny; gene-culture co-evolution; adaptation; maternal mortality; natural selection;
D O I
10.1016/S1095-6433(03)00019-9
中图分类号
Q5 [生物化学]; Q7 [分子生物学];
学科分类号
071010 ; 081704 ;
摘要
Physiological data from a range of human populations living in different environments can provide valuable information for testing evolutionary hypotheses about human adaptation. By taking into account the effects of population history, phylogenetic comparative methods can help us determine whether variation results from selection due to particular environmental variables. These selective forces could even be due to cultural traits-which means that gene-culture co-evolution may be occurring. In this paper, we outline two examples of the use of these approaches to test adaptive hypotheses that explain global variation in two physiological traits: the first is lactose digestion capacity in adults, and the second is population sex-ratio at birth. We show that lower than average sex ratio at birth is associated with high fertility, and argue that global variation in sex ratio at birth has evolved as a response to the high physiological costs of producing boys in high fertility populations. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:85 / 94
页数:10
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