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Sex Ratios at Birth and Environmental Temperatures

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Abstract

 The relationship between average monthly air temperature and sex ratios at birth (SRB) was analyzed for children born in Germany during the period 1946–1995. Both the absolute temperature and – more markedly – the monthly temperature deviations from the overall mean were significantly positively correlated with the SRB (P<0.01) when temperatures were time-lagged against the SRB data by –10 or –11 months. It is concluded that the sex of the offspring is partially determined by environmental temperatures prior to conception.

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Received: 26 August 1998 / Accepted in revised form: 18 February 1999

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Lerchl, A. Sex Ratios at Birth and Environmental Temperatures. Naturwissenschaften 86, 340–342 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s001140050630

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s001140050630

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