Journal article
Evolutionary stability and the rarity of grandmothering
- Abstract:
- The provision of intergenerational care, via the Grandmother Hypothesis, has been implicated in the evolution of post-fertile longevity, particularly in humans. However, if grandmothering does provide fitness benefits, a key question is why has it evolved so infrequently? We investigate this question with a combination of life-history and evolutionary game theory. We derive simple eligibility and stability thresholds, both of which must be satisfied if intergenerational care is first to evolve and then to persist in a population. As one threshold becomes easier to fulfill, the other becomes more difficult, revealing a conflict between the two. As such, we suggest that, in fact, we should expect the evolution of grandmothering to be rare
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 393.3KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1002/ece3.2958
Authors
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Journal:
- Ecology and Evolution More from this journal
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 10
- Pages:
- 3574–3578
- Publication date:
- 2017-04-10
- Acceptance date:
- 2017-03-07
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2045-7758
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:684212
- UUID:
-
uuid:8a039c39-8ff2-4759-8765-c9ae709dde5a
- Local pid:
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pubs:684212
- Source identifiers:
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684212
- Deposit date:
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2017-03-08
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Field and Bonsall
- Copyright date:
- 2017
- Notes:
- © 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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