Research Catalog

Title

A natural history of families / Scott Forbes.

Author

Forbes, Scott, 1958-

Publication

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2005.

Supplementary Content

Publisher description

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

ix, 231 p. : ill.; 25 cm.

Subjects

• Reproduction
• Families
• Reproduction > Social aspects
• Parental behavior in animals

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-228) and index.

Contents

• 1. Blame parents -- Do the good die young? -- The family myth -- 2. The optimistic parent -- The evolution of family size -- The puzzle of obligate brood reduction -- How many babies? -- Avian families -- Core and marginal offspring -- Asymmetric sibling rivalry creates disposable offspring -- The evolution of family structure -- What is parental optimism? -- Why parental optimism? -- Tracking erratic resources -- Replacement -- Facilitation -- Multiple incentives for parental optimism -- Are humans optimistic parents? -- 3. Why parents play favorites -- Mom always liked you best -- The fivefold advantage of favoritism -- 1) The benefits and costs of unequal parental investment -- 2) Divestment of unneeded offspring best -- 3) Benefits of diversification -- 4) Correcting earlier decisions -- 5) Bet-hedging and brood reduction --
• 4. How parents play favorites -- What is a phenotypic handicap? -- How birds play favorites -- Primary versus secondary handicaps -- How blackbirds play favorites -- Reversible handicaps -- How marsupials play favorites -- Brood reduction in rabbits -- How plants play favorites -- Different species, same idea -- Humans play favorites too -- Birth order and favoritism -- 5. Family conflict -- Genetic conflict between parents and offspring -- Parent-offspring conflict -- Pregnancy and parent-offspring conflict -- Natural born cancers -- Imprinted genes in humans -- Genetic conflict and Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome -- Parent-offspring conflict over embryo growth -- Imprinting and gestational diabetes -- Pregnancy sickness and genetic conflict -- HCG : the hormone of pregnancy sickness? -- Evolution of chorionic gonadotropins in primates -- Chorionic gonadotropins and miscarriage -- 6. Selfishness unconstrained -- Brood parasitic birds -- Old world cuckoos -- ... and new world cowbirds -- Cowbird mafia? -- Cuckoo catfish -- The origins of brood parasitism -- Adopting runaways? -- Forced adoption of non-kin -- Voluntary adoption of non-kin -- The lesson of brood parasitism --
• 7. Screening for offspring quality -- The logic of progeny choice -- Sequential versus simultaneous progeny choice -- Progeny choice in humans -- Adaptive miscarriage -- Chromosomal defects in humans -- Sex chromosomes and birth defects -- Turner's syndrome and genomic imprinting -- Birth defects and maternal age -- Rejecting low-quality embryos -- HCG and adaptive miscarriage -- Relaxed screening in older mothers? -- Why relaxed selection? -- Why more spontaneous abortions in older mothers? -- The origin of genetic defects -- The shadow of menopause -- Screening, maternal age, and the role of genomic imprinting? -- Maternal age and twinning -- 8. Why twins? -- The evolution of brood and family size -- Fault-tolerant design in humans -- Twinning as an insurance strategy -- Insurance offspring in birds -- In vitro fertilization and twinning -- Age, trisomy 21, and twinning -- More than just polyovulation -- Twinning and individual optimization -- Fit or fat? -- A womb for two -- Natural selection on twinning frequency -- Brood reduction before birth? -- 9. Fatal sibling rivalry -- Siblicide -- Desperado siblings result from extreme favoritism -- The good and the best -- Facultative versus obligate brood reduction -- Ultraselfish alleles -- Human twins -- "Biological" influences --
• 10. Family harmony -- Cooperation in families -- The Arthur Dent effect -- Why cooperation? -- The road to cooperation -- Parental optimism and the evolution of cooperation -- Polyembryony and new roles for marginal offspring -- Parasitoid wasps -- Adaptive suicide? -- The benefits of teamwork -- Social insects : the ultimate team players -- Trophic offspring -- Sibling synergies in birds and mammals -- Conflict when necessary, but not necessarily conflict -- Cooperative defense ... against parents? -- Facilitation in humans? -- Finding their niche : birth order and human behavior -- 11. Cannibalism and infanticide -- The pathways to cannibalism -- Honey, I ate the kids -- Offspring designed to be eaten -- The pathways to infanticide -- Sexually-selected infanticide -- Killer rodents -- Infanticide in families -- The unwilling parent? -- 12. Brave new worlds -- Artificial parental optimism and infanticide -- An epidemic of multiple births -- Risks of multiple gestation -- The ghost in the machine -- Embryo reduction -- Artificial progeny choice -- Refining artificial progeny choice -- Does assisted reproduction cause low-quality progeny? -- Send in the clones -- Parental optimism and the law of unintended consequences -- Blame parents -- 13. Debunking the family myth.

Call Number

JFE 06-8884

ISBN

0691094829 (alk. paper)

LCCN

2004022425

OCLC

56614272

Author

Forbes, Scott, 1958-

Title

A natural history of families / Scott Forbes.

Imprint

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2005.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-228) and index.

Connect to:

Table of contents

Publisher description

Research Call Number

JFE 06-8884