Latest Monogamy Stories
Avoidance of inbreeding is evident amongst humans, and has been demonstrated in some shorebirds, mice and sand lizards. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology now report that it also occurs in a strictly monogamous species of bird, suggesting that the black-legged kittiwake possesses the ability to choose partners with a very different genetic profile.The study, led by Richard H. Wagner from the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology of the Austrian Academy of...
A Scottish study challenges longstanding expectations that men are promiscuous and women tend to be more particular when it comes to choosing a mate. Lead study author Dr. Gillian R. Brown of the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews said that in 1948, Angus J. Bateman's famous studies in fruit flies showed that males exhibit greater variance in mating success -- defined as the number of sexual partners -- and in reproductive success -- the number of offspring -- when...
A new study challenges long-standing expectations that men are promiscuous and women tend to be more particular when it comes to choosing a mate. The research, published by Cell Press in the April issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, suggests that human mating strategies are not likely to conform to a single universal pattern and provides important insights that may impact future investigations of human mating behaviors.In 1948, Angus J. Bateman's performed some now famous...
New research from Britain finds that speed-dating, in which couples race through a series of 5-minute "mini-dates" and select those they wish to see again, may leave people feeling unlovable since men and women are judged primarily on their appearance.Previous studies on birds and primates suggest that the larger the group, the greater the chances that non-dominant individuals would be chosen as a mate. Alison Lenton at the University of Edinburgh and her team wanted to see if the same held...
New research suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones.Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, suggested that after accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations.The research looks to solve the long-standing puzzle of life expectancy in human biology.A phenomenon called the grandmother effect...
News of politicians' extramarital affairs seems to be in no short supply lately, but if humans were cut from exactly the same cloth as other mammals, a faithful spouse would be an unusual phenomenon. Only 3 percent to 5 percent of the roughly 5,000 species of mammals (including humans) are known to form lifelong, monogamous bonds, with the loyal superstars including beavers, wolves and some bats. Social monogamy is a term referring to creatures that pair up to mate and raise offspring but...
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A trail of feathers led a team of Purdue University scientists to confirm that eagles from central Asia are quite possibly the most faithful of birds.By performing DNA analysis on the feathers left behind at nesting sites, the researchers were able to identify individual Eastern imperial eagles in a nature reserve in Kazakhstan. Their analysis showed that not one adult strayed from its mate - a degree of fidelity highly unusual among birds, the vast majority of which...
"As time marches inexorably on, human society...evolves." So philosophized Judge William L. Downing in striking down the state of Washington's Defense of Marriage Act in August, ruling that same- sex couples have a right to marry. Indeed, evolutionary language seems tightly bound to the "gay marriage" agenda. "There is an evolution of society," cooed Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien last year when announcing a new national policy opening marriage to homosexual couples.1 Jacqueline...
