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To: AndrewC

He did overstate it, but malaria provides more negative pressure on reaching breeding age than sickle cell.

Biology doesn't care about people reaching into old age, just giving them the best opportunity to reproduce and raise young.

This results in sickle cell being more prevalent in malarial areas than clear areas. It is why blacks have more sickle cell than other races, even when out of danger for hundreds of years.


527 posted on 01/25/2005 4:43:35 AM PST by shubi (Peace through superior firepower.)
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To: shubi
Biology doesn't care about people reaching into old age, just giving them the best opportunity to reproduce and raise young.

Which is why Huntington's corea isn't particularly selected against, nor is Alzheimer's.

583 posted on 01/25/2005 11:12:17 AM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: shubi; general_re
He did overstate it, but malaria provides more negative pressure on reaching breeding age than sickle cell.

I consider the general a friendly opponent. And as I said, I am from Missouri, show me. The 14 month period of advantage(although the way I read the graph it carries on into about 24 months) for the HbAS carrier is to be compared to the disadvantages of the trait carried to around 10 years or 120 months. That period is much longer before reproductive capability.

621 posted on 01/25/2005 5:48:09 PM PST by AndrewC (Darwinian logic -- It is just-so if it is just-so)
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