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from the if-your-parents-didn't-have-children,-then-you-probably-won't,-either dept.
Monogamy may have a telltale signature of gene activity
In the animal world, monogamy has some clear perks. Living in pairs can give animals some stability and certainty in the constant struggle to reproduce and protect their young—which may be why it has evolved independently in various species. Now, an analysis of gene activity within the brains of frogs, rodents, fish, and birds suggests there may be a pattern common to monogamous creatures. Despite very different brain structures and evolutionary histories, these animals all seem to have developed monogamy by turning on and off some of the same sets of genes.
"It is quite surprising," says Harvard University evolutionary biologist Hopi Hoekstra, who was not involved in the new work. "It suggests that there's a sort of genomic strategy to becoming monogamous that evolution has repeatedly tapped into."
Conserved transcriptomic profiles underpin monogamy across vertebrates (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1813775116) (DX)
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Tuesday January 08 2019, @07:00PM (1 child)
Well, there's traditional polygamy where some guy marries multiple wives, and then there's the modern reinvention of it called polyamory which is done by Millenials and some guy named Warren Buffet and old hippies nobody else cares about*. The two actually have very little to do with each other; polygamy is basically (with a few historical exceptions) a "perk" of archaic patriarchal society having to do with domestic structure and childrearing, and polyamory is that warm fuzzy idea that says you're, like, NOT automatically justified (as either a man or woman) to flip out and set your partner's car on fire just because they still get the feels for other people if you haven't discussed an exclusivity arrangement, because despite what Hollywood wants to tell you, those feels are biologically, if not culturally, normal, which sounds supported even by the article you were reading. There's some other nuance there, but the point is, the term "polygamy" gets a bad rap from all sides.
*gross oversimplification, just to be clear
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 08 2019, @08:22PM
When someone mentions polygamy I tend to think of places like Colorado City [wikipedia.org] which sounds like an absolute hellhole if you're not one of the chosen few.
Or a woman.