Self-organisation of female menopause in populations with child-care and reproductive risk

The Complexity of Biological Ageing

“…Particularly important seem the menopause explanations 57,26 showing that such effects are not restricted to humans. Simulations of alternative theories of biological ageing 19 are mostly lacking.…”

Evolution, ageing and speciation: Monte Carlo simulations of biological systems

“…He suggested that due to a reproduction risk that increases with advancing ages and a long period of child dependence, it is more advantageous to the females to cease reproduction in order to take care of the already born young offspring. This idea was simulated [20] by introducing into the Penna model the following restrictions: a) there is a risk due to reproduction which is proportional to the number of current accumulated mutations (which means proportional to age, since in the model bad mutations accumulate at advancing ages); b) there is a period of parental care: offspring whose mothers die withing this period, are killed; c) the menopause age is no longer imposed, but transmitted to the female offspring with mutations. That is, all the females start with a maximum reproduction age (menopause age) equal to 32.…”

On the Uselessness of Men — Comparison of Sexual and Asexual Reproduction

“…13 We simulated this effect with the methods used in Ref. 14 to study the influence of human testosteron.…”