title: Sex ratio, dominance status and maternal hormone levels at the time of conception.
abstract: Sex ratio is a topic which has attracted the attention of epidemiologists and evolutionary biologists. But their work has been conducted largely in parallel: hitherto they seem not to have found much inspiration in one another's results. Their attitudes, environments and problems have all been strikingly different. The present note shows how one of the biologists' findings may be explained by a hypothesis based on epidemiological observation. The hypothesis (that sex ratio of offspring is partially controlled by maternal hormone levels at the time of conception) needs testing in a number of species.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D006728:Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008322:Mammals; D009035:Mothers; D010215:Papio; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012930:Social Dominance
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones