Aaron P. Ragsdale

Genetic Basis of Social Structure in the Pastoral Nomads of Central Eurasia

Abstract Although the social structure of Central Eurasian pastoral nomads has been described as fluid and ad hoc by historians and anthropologists, its potential genetic basis remains poorly understood. To evaluate whether kinship based social organization has biological foundat...

Mean fitness is maximized in small populations under stabilizing selection on highly polygenic traits

Stabilizing selection commonly acts on complex traits that affect individual fitness. Here, we relate mean fitness under stabilizing selection to population size and trait architecture, using a simple application of theoretical predictions for the distribution of phenotypic value...