Posted 25 Oct 2013 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Sex on the Mind” Ugh. How do I decompose this enough? I have always had a fear that David Barash is more pundit than academic, but this column is really scary. There is complete agreement among evolutionary biologists that all we need to understand the evolutionary process is a consideration of Read More
A Major Post, Articles, Evolutionary Psychology, Genetics, Human Evolution, Mating systems, Reproductive Fitness, Sex and Reproduction
Posted 23 Aug 2013 / 0
Mongabay News “The evolution of cooperation: communal nests are best for ruffed lemurs” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology “Communal nesting, kinship, and maternal success in a social primate” What I find particularly interesting about these findings is that they appear to show that kinship — if a factor at all — might well be a byproduct Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavioral Ecology, Cooperation, Kin Selection, Mating systems, Mutualism, Reciprocity, Reproductive Fitness, Tropical Forest, Web
Posted 30 Jul 2013 / 0
National Public Radio Morning Edition “For Some Mammals It’s One Love, But Reasons Still Unclear” Although brief, I appreciate how this article lays out the three hypotheses for monogamy: Monogamous co-parenting increases the survival rate of offspring as compared to parenting by the mother alone; Monogamy results from the pattern of resource distribution: if resources are Read More
A Minor Post, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Competition, Cooperation, Evolution, Genetics, Human Uniqueness, Mating systems, Radio & Podcasts, Sex and Reproduction
Posted 15 Jul 2013 / 0
Studio 360 “Isabella Rossellini’s Mammas”
A Minor Post, Radio & Podcasts, Sex and Reproduction
Posted 15 Jul 2013 / 0
The Quarterly Review of Biology “Homosexuality as a Consequence of Epigenetically Canalized Sexual Development” What makes this theory so compelling is how it addresses the “heritable but not at all clearly genetic” problem of explaining the very high prevalence of homosexuality in human populations. There have been other theories of homosexuality that invoke sexual antagonism, but Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Epigenetics, Human Evolution, Sex and Reproduction
Posted 15 Jul 2013 / 0
Wired “Sperm Trajectories” I like the way that color is used to denote time in these images, and how they show these four different trajectory types in multiple dimensions. Now if we can figure out the evolutionary significance of this diversity, we have a real story.
A Minor Post, Sex and Reproduction, Web
Posted 02 Jan 2013 / 1
The Chronicle of Higher Education “The Evolutionary Mystery of Homosexuality” It is interesting that Barash focuses so heavily in this article on traditional population genetic explanations for the “paradox” of homosexuality, especially when it is becoming so clear that single-gene approaches to human evolution make very little sense. Barash also makes a really weak argument Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Group Selection, Kin Selection, Natural Selection, Population Genetics, Reproductive Fitness, Sex and Reproduction
Posted 27 Sep 2012 / 0
Science Now “Bearing Sons Can Alter Your Mind” Once again, epigenetic effects complicate our understanding of biological evolution! Two interesting omissions in this article: The fail to point out that female fetuses might also be donating DNA to mom: it is just easier to detect the male DNA unequivocally; and The real implication here is Read More
A Minor Post, Epigenetics, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Health & Medicine, Human Evolution, Phenotypic Plasticity, Sex and Reproduction, Web
Posted 25 Jun 2012 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Sex 2.0“
A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, Sex and Reproduction
Posted 24 Jun 2012 / 0
Science Now “Turtle Sex—Preserved for the Ages“
A Minor Post, Fossil Data, Sex and Reproduction
