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Sexual Selection in the French School of Population Genetics: Claudine Petit (1920–2007)

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Current Perspectives on Sexual Selection

Part of the book series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences ((HPTL,volume 9))

Abstract

This paper analyses Claudine Petit’s contributions to the experimental study of sexual selection. It examines the two sources of Petit’s work on the “advantage of the rare” in Drosophila melanogaster: the Tessier school of experimental genetics, with its methodology founded upon population cages, and the Dobzhansky/Mayr American school, which considered it mainly in relation with the problem of reproductive isolation. The evolution of Petit’s research is examined in detail, as well as the important role that her experimental work had in the issue of frequency-dependent selection. Petit’s final overtly non-adaptive interpretation of sexual selection is examined, in contrast with Dobzhansky’s conception.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Source: personal communication, shortly before Claudine Petit’s death.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 13 rue du Four, 75006, Paris, France

    Jean Gayon

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  1. Jean Gayon
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Correspondence to Jean Gayon .

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  1. Faculty of Philosophy, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Lyon, France

    Thierry Hoquet

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Gayon, J. (2015). Sexual Selection in the French School of Population Genetics: Claudine Petit (1920–2007). In: Hoquet, T. (eds) Current Perspectives on Sexual Selection. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9585-2_4

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