A family history: Effects of parental age on offspring life-history traits in bighorn sheep

Long-term fitness effects of parental age could affect population dynamics, as age structure can vary considerably over time. Few studies of wild animals, however, have examined the possible long-term fitness consequences of parental age. Based upon 50 years of data on wild bighorn sheep, we investigated how parental age affected three offspring traits – mass at three years, longevity, and female lifetime reproductive success. We also tested for a survival filter which could mask or increase fitness effects of parental age. Our results showed a significant, quadratic negative association between maternal age, offspring longevity and female lifetime reproductive success. Offspring born to mothers aged 5-6 years lived about 2 years longer and weaned about 1.5 lambs more than siblings born to mothers aged 12-13 years. The effect of paternal age was not significant. There was also a positive association between the longevity of mothers and offspring. We did not detect any effects of parenta..., , # A family history: Effects of parental age on offspring life-history traits in bighorn sheep

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.7d7wm3868](10.5061/dryad.7d7wm3868)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains information on individual sheep, including their ID, sex, mass at 3 years old, birth and death years, parental information, and reproductive traits.

### Files and variables

#### File: dataLongevityDad.csv

**Description:** This dataset contains information on **offspring longevity** in relation to **paternal age and longevity**. It includes details on the focal individual's birth and death years, parental identifiers, and the number of adult females in the population.

##### Variables

* ID: Unique identifier for each sheep.
* idSex: Sex of the focal individual (*F * for female, *M* for male).
* idLongevity: Longevity, in years, of the focal individual (the offspring).
* birthYear: Year the individual was born (the cohort).
* deathYear: Year the individual die...,