Evolution of sociality by natural selection on variances in reproductive fitness: evidence from a social bee
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Date
2007
Authors
Schwarz, Michael Philip
Stevens, Mark Ian
Hogendoorn, Katja
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© 2007 Stevens et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
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Stevens et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Abstract
The Central Limit Theorem (CLT) is a statistical principle that states that as the
number of repeated samples from any population increase, the variance among sample means will
decrease and means will become more normally distributed. It has been conjectured that the CLT
has the potential to provide benefits for group living in some animals via greater predictability in
food acquisition, if the number of foraging bouts increases with group size. The potential existence
of benefits for group living derived from a purely statistical principle is highly intriguing and it has
implications for the origins of sociality.
Description
© 2007 Stevens et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Citation
Stevens, M.I., Hogendoorn, K., &
Schwarz, M.P., 2007. Evolution of sociality by natural selection on variances in
reproductive fitness: evidence from a social bee. BMC Evolutionary Biology,
7(153).