The Red Queen hypothesis, offered to explain why sexual reproduction persists, was first proposed in 1973 by:

1. Asexual reproduction is cheaper, so the persistence of sex needs explaining. 2. One answer is that species must keep changing simply to hold their place against rivals and parasites. 3. The Red Queen hypothesis was first proposed by Leigh Van Valen in 1973. 4. No single species progresses too far ahead because genetic variation among the progeny of sexual reproduction provides all species with a mechanism to improve rapidly. 5. Mendel, McClintock and Darwin worked on inheritance and selection rather than on this particular question. _Source: OpenStax Biology for AP(R) Courses (CC BY 4.0), Ch 11 'Meiosis and Sexual Reproduction', sections 11.1-11.2_