Evolutionary maternal effects occur whenever a mother s phenotypic traits directly affect her offspring s phenotype, independent of the offspring s genotype. Some of the phenotypic traits that result in maternal effects have a genetic basis, whereas others are environmentally determined. For example, the size of a litter produced by a mammalian mother a trait with a strong genetic basis can affect the growth rate of her offspring, while a mother s dominance rank an environmentally determined trait can affect the dominance rank of her offspring.

The first volume published on the subject...