Three hundred years of low non-paternity in a human population

摘要: When cuckoldry is frequent we can expect fathers to withhold investment in offspring that may not be theirs. Human paternal substantial and line with observations from tens of thousands conceptions suggest rare humans. The generality this claim seems question as the rate varies across populations studies have mostly been on Western populations. Two additional factors complicate our conclusions, (1) current estimates humans reflect past behaviour adultery concealed by use contraceptives; (2) it difficult obtain samples are random respect their paternity certainty. Studies combine genealogies Y-chromosome haplotyping able circumvent some these problems probing into humans’ historical behaviour. Here approach investigate 1273 over a period 330 years 23 families Afrikaner population South Africa. We haplotype frequency diversity coalescent simulations show male did undergo severe bottleneck exclusion rates high for population. was 0.9% (95% confidence interval 0.4–1.5%), argue given data conclude that, at least human populations, probably range 1%.