R. Sear
The fitness of twin mothers: evidence from rural Gambia
Sear, R.; Shanley, D.; McGregor, I.A.; Mace, R.
Authors
D. Shanley
I.A. McGregor
R. Mace
Abstract
We used a longitudinal database from a natural fertility population in rural Gambia to compare the overall fertility of mothers who had given birth to twins at some point in their reproductive history and mothers who had only ever given birth to singletons. We found that twin mothers had shorter birth intervals, higher age-specific fertility and more surviving children than singleton mothers. This suggests that, despite the considerably higher mortality of twins found in this population, twin mothers have a fitness advantage over singleton mothers, even in the absence of modern medical care. We ran a simple simulation model to estimate the relative fitness of twin and singleton mothers, and found that the model also estimated higher fitness for twin mothers. Further, girls who went on to become twin mothers were of higher anthropometric status during their teenage years than those who became singleton mothers.
Citation
Sear, R., Shanley, D., McGregor, I., & Mace, R. (2001). The fitness of twin mothers: evidence from rural Gambia. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 14(3), 433-443. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1420-9101.2001.00287.x
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Dec 1, 2001 |
Deposit Date | Oct 19, 2010 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 29, 2024 |
Journal | Journal of Evolutionary Biology |
Print ISSN | 1010-061X |
Publisher | Wiley |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 14 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 433-443 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1420-9101.2001.00287.x |
Keywords | Anthropometric status, Fertility, Polyovulation, Twins. |
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The definitive version is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
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