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To: HLPhat

“Tell us about the Social structure enforced by Western Lowlands Gorillas, super genius.”

I commented on “most things in nature”, all you respond with is “Western lowland gorillas”, which certainly don’t constitute “most things in nature”. In fact, monogamy is a rare strategy in nature:

“Social monogamy is relatively rare in the animal kingdom. The actual incidence of social monogamy varies greatly across different branches of the evolutionary tree. Over 90% of avian species are socially monogamous.[10][16] This stands in contrast to mammals. Only 3% of mammalian species are socially monogamous, although up to 15% of primate species are.[10][16] Social monogamy has also been observed in reptiles, fish, and insects.

Sexual monogamy is also rare among animals. Many socially monogamous species engage in extra-pair copulations, making them sexually non-monogamous. For example, while over 90% of birds are socially monogamous, “on average, 30% or more of the baby birds in any nest [are] sired by someone other than the resident male.”[17] Patricia Adair Gowaty has estimated that, out of 180 different species of socially monogamous songbirds, only 10% are sexually monogamous.[18]

The incidence of genetic monogamy, determined by DNA fingerprinting, varies widely across species. For a few rare species, the incidence of genetic monogamy is 100%, with all offspring genetically related to the socially monogamous pair. But genetic monogamy is strikingly low in other species. Barash and Lipton note:

The highest known frequency of extra-pair copulations are found among the fairy-wrens, lovely tropical creatures technically known as Malurus splendens and Malurus cyaneus. More than 65% of all fairy-wren chicks are fathered by males outside the supposed breeding group.[16]p. 12

Such low levels of genetic monogamy have surprised biologists and zoologists, forcing them to rethink the role of social monogamy in evolution. They can no longer assume social monogamy determines how genes are distributed in a species. The lower the rates of genetic monogamy among socially monogamous pairs, the less of a role social monogamy plays in determining how genes are distributed among offspring.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour#Monogamy


200 posted on 05/12/2017 1:46:57 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman

Lol. Wiki genius.

Your ignorance regarding the social mechanisms that govern the reproductive behavior of higher primates is not surprising.

Maybe you’d like to explain the mechanisms that govern the reproductive behavior of social insects, like honey bees?


201 posted on 05/12/2017 2:07:41 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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