Eusocial insects could have started with monogamous pairs

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 2 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

After reading all those depressing articles about how even monogamous species like swans and wolves cheat on their partners, this one was a bit refreshing. The authors posit that monogamy might be the foundation of cooperative species, at least in the beginning. These findings support the idea that cooperative insects group together because of the chance to let a sister pass on her genes and less because of straight survival.

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Duetting birds found to be unfaithful

Eric wu submitted, created time 10 months 4 weeks (www.nature.com)

Birds that sing in harmonious duets with one another have always been considered monogamous partners, with the singing thought to help in building faithful relationships. Now, research has shown at least that one such species sleeps around.

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Cheuvanist Chimps: Correlations between male-female violence, stress hormones and fecundity

Hecate submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

A study out of Boston University demonstrates that male-on-female violence among chimpanzees is not necessarily spillover from male-male aggression or random disputes over food et al. There appears to be a purpose behind it.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: chimpanzees primates violence sex monogamy aggression stress coercion