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Why Do We Have More Boys Than Girls?

2014-09-04

[public] 8.57M views, 134K likes, dislikes audio only

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Most human parents-to-be assume that the sex of their child comes down to a flip of the chromosomal coin, with an equal chance of having a boy or girl. But in reality, the odds aren’t even -for every 100 girls born, the world gains about 106 baby boys.

CREDITS

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Created by Henry Reich

Narrated by: Emily Elert

Production and Writing Team: Alex Reich, Peter Reich, Emily Elert, Ever Salazar, Kate Yoshida, and Henry Reich

Music by Nathaniel Schroeder

OTHER CREDITS

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Elephant Seal 1

Photo by: Roy Mangersnes

http://roywildphoto.blogspot.com/2008/11/elephant-seals.html

Elephant Seal 2

Photo by: Mike Baird

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/11830159673/

White tailed deer

Photo by: Public Domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:White-tailed_deer.jpg

Key Deer

Photo by: IanarÈ SÈvi

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odocoileus_virginianus_clavium_fawn.jpg

Male Lion

Photo by: Wikimedia user Robek

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pair_of_lions_v2.jpg

Baby Lion

Photo by: Flickr user fortherock

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortherock/3897872187/

Brad Pitt

Photo by: Foreign and Commonwealth Office

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foreignoffice/14217374639/

Kids

Photo by: Barbara Hobbs

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Upclose_of_kids_-_Alberti_Flea_Circus,_MerleFest_2013.jpg

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REFERENCES

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Cameron, E.Z. (2004). Facultative adjustment of mammalian sex ratios in support of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis: evidence for a mechanism. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 271:1723–1728. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/271/1549/1723

Chahnazarian, A. (1988). Determinants of the sex ratio at birth: Review of recent literature. Social Biology 35 (3–4): 214–235. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19485565.1988.9988703?journalCode=hsbi20#.U-5oSPldWRM

Coale, A.J. (1991). Excess female mortality and the balance of the sexes in the population: An estimate of the number of "missing females." Population and Development Review 17(3): 517-523.http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1971953?uid=3739824&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104121507601

Clutton-Brock, T. H., Albon, S. D., and Guinness, F. E. (1986). Great expectations: dominance, breeding success and offspring sex ratios in red deer. Animal Behavior 34: 460-471. http://www.kora.ch/malme/05_library/5_1_publications/C/Clutton-Brock_et_al_1986_Dominance_breeding_success_and_offspring_sex_ratios_in_red_deer.pdf

Kalben B. (2000). Why men die younger: causes of mortality differences by sex. North American Actuarial Journal 4(4): 83–111. https://www.soa.org/news-and-publications/publications/other-publications/monographs/m-li01-1-toc.aspx

Schnettler, S. (2013). Revisiting a Sample of U.S. Billionaires: How Sample Selection and Timing of Maternal Condition Influence Findings on the Trivers-Willard Effect. PLoS ONE 8(2): e57446. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0057446

Song, S. (2012). Does famine influence sex ratio at birth? Evidence from the 1959–1961 Great Leap Forward Famine in China. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 279(1739):2883-2890. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/03/16/rspb.2012.0320.full

Thogerson C.M., Brady, C.M., Howard, R.D., Mason, G.J., Pajor, E.A., Vicino, G.A., and Garner, J.P. (2013) Winning the genetic lottery: biasing birth sex ratio results in more grandchildren. PLoS One 8(7):e67867. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067867

Trivers, R.L., and Willard, D.E. (1973). Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of offspring. Science 179: 90-92. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/179/4068/90.abstract


MinuteEarth Science and stories about our awesome planet! Our staff: Lizah van der Aart, Sarah Berman, Cameron Duke, Arcadi Garcia, David Goldenberg, Melissa Hayes, Alex Reich, Henry Reich, Peter Reich, Ever Salazar, Leonardo Souza, Kate Yoshida and Jasper Palfree. MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
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