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1. This Yeast Mothers study is no doubt important...
2. However, the media presents these findings in a manner to suggest that it always pays mothers to self-sacrifice in service to a current crop, brood, clutch, litter, etc....
3. Theory & empirical data show, instead, that mothers are most likely to benefit from "maximizing" future reproduction [conditionally]...ceteris paribus...
4. Thus, some of the operational questions become: Within & between species, when & under what conditions does it "pay" to allocate risky, sub-lethal, and/or lethal maternal investments across a lifetime...[e.g., differential mortality rates, lifespan, benefits/costs of "bet-hedging", Generation Time]
5. Hamilton, Stuart West, Trivers,West-Eberhard, among others, summarize these, and, related, ideas in straightforward, accessible language...
6. If, in fact, such cases exist, reliable lethal &/or sub-lethal investment[s] in current offspring may [sort of] be like "blowing the wad" @ a terminal point in poker games...i.e., selling everything when ecological or other environmental constraints are stressful & constraining in the extreme...
7. clara b. jones
Blog: http://vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cbjones1943
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