Why do we have near-equal numbers of male, female babies, unlike other animals?

theconversation.com

6 pointsolvy05 comments

If it implies humans are unusual, this is poor framing: AIUI all the domesticated species (h sap included) have 1:1 ratios. For dairy farmers in particular, this means almost all male calves are byproducts, to be monetised somehow.

"I'll be here all week. Try the veal."

Lagniappe: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6680155/

Modern humans have control over this with centrifuged, sex-selected semen for cows.

Boy (sans testicles) beef, girl milk.

TIL! Although my neighbour still does live cover, the local semen vendor not only provides this service (~90% selected), but even has an app to calculate if the extra expense could be worth it for your dairy op: https://www.swissgenetics.com/en/selexyon-profitabiliy-calcu...

(they seem to suggest a mixed strategy could be optimal: just enough sexed straws to guarantee full replacement of the dairy herd, and normal straws for the remainder)

According to genome studies, only about 1 man in 17 had great-great-grandchildren, back in the day.

1. https://sciencealert.com/neolithic-y-chromosome-bottleneck-w...

And We Finally [we think we] Know Why

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