Reproductive strategies and disease susceptibility: an evolutionary viewpoint.
Arguments about which constitutes the 'weaker sex' notwithstanding, sex differences in mortality and disease susceptibility have been noted in many species of animals, including humans. In this article, Marlene Zuk examines the possible reasons for these differences, relating them to reproductive strategies, and suggests how they may have resulted from selective pressures.
Zuk
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Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.