Juvenile mortality and sibling replacement: a kin selection approach.

ABSTRACT: Mortality generally is higher around birth and then progressively declines through the juvenile stage. In species where offspring depend upon their parents during maturation, a factor behind this mortality decline could be sibling replacement: offspring sacrifice their survival to benefit future or present siblings as early as possible in order to minimize losses in parental investment. Here, we propose a kin-selection model of sibling replacement. Theoretical analysis of the model and its application to demographic data of mammals suggest that sibling replacement consistently generates a selective incentive for increasing juvenile mortality at early ages when this mortality increment is the result of positive selection for juvenile altruism within the nuclear family. The model highlights

SUBMITTER: Giaimo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11827334 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature