The impact of early stress on juvenile development has intrigued scientists for decades, but
the adaptive significance of such effects remains an ongoing debate. This debate has …

Sex determination and differentiation are processes by which a bipotential gonad adopts
either a testicular or ovarian cell fate, and secondary sexual characteristics adopt either …

Comparisons of the sex chromosome systems in birds and mammals are widening our view
and deepening our understanding of vertebrate sex chromosome organization, function, and …

The ability to adjust sex ratios at the individual level exists among all vertebrate groups
studied to date. In many cases, there is evidence for facultative adjustment of sex ratios in …

Steroid hormones are important mediators of prenatal maternal effects in animals. Despite a
growing number of studies involving experimental manipulation of these hormones, little is …

Maternally-derived hormones affect offspring physiological and behavioural phenotype,
plausibly as an adaptive response to maternal environmental conditions. Corticosterone …

Sex allocation theory predicts that when sons and daughters have different reproductive
values, parents should adjust offspring sex ratio towards the sex with the higher fitness …

In various studies, chronic elevation of corticosterone levels in female birds under natural or
experimental conditions resulted in female biased offspring sex ratios. In chicken, one study …

Sex allocation theory predicts biased offspring sex ratios in relation to local conditions if they
would maximize parental lifetime reproductive return. In mammals, the extent of the birth sex …

Birds have the ability to influence offspring sex prior to egg laying and may use hormones to
mediate these skews. Corticosterone is of particular interest as a mediator of offspring sex …