Chapter 5 Bootstrap sampling of daughter on mother regression

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Figure 5.2 Estimation of heritability from offspring-parent data. In this example the heritability of body vertebral counts is estimated from data on female garter snakes (Thamnophis elegans, inland population) and their newborn daughters. Heritability is estimated as 2 times the values of the regression of daughter averages on the mother’s count (the factor of 2 corrects for the use of a single parent rather than both parents). The animation shows the regression lines estimated for each of 1,000 bootstrap samples. At the end of the run, a histogram of heritability estimates is shown in the upper lefthand corner. The variance in this histogram can be used to estimate the confidence limits for the overall point estimate of heritability. Details on the sample and scoring procedures can be found in Arnold & Phillips (1999).