Understanding how and why menopause has evolved is a long-standing challenge across
disciplines. Females can typically maximize their reproductive success by reproducing for …

Age-related changes in the patterns of local relatedness (kinship dynamics) can be a
significant selective force shaping the evolution of life history and social behaviour. In …

The importance of hormones in mediating a behavioral transition in mammals from a virgin
or nonparenting state to parental state was established around 50 years ago. Extensive …

In its initial form, the expensive son hypothesis postulates that sons from male‐biased
sexually dimorphic species require more food during growth than daughters, which …

Research in medicine and evolutionary biology suggests that the sequencing of parental
investment has a crucial impact on offspring life history and health. Here, we take advantage …

Understanding the evolution of menopause presents a long-standing scientific challenge 1,
2, 3—why should females cease ovulation prior to the end of their natural lifespan? In …

Maternal investment influences the survival and reproduction of both mothers and their
progeny and plays a crucial role in understanding individuals' life-history and population …

Philopatric kin-based societies encourage a narrow breadth of conservative behaviours
owing to individuals primarily learning from close kin, promoting behavioural homogeneity …

In monotocous mammals, most individuals experience the birth of a younger sibling. This
period may induce losses in maternal care and can be physiologically, energetically and …

Strong, affiliative relationships are important across social mammals, and in many species,
relationships between female kin form the basis of group life. Relationships are expected to …