Promiscuity and the evolutionary transition to complex societies.

Journal article

Theory predicts that the evolution of cooperative behaviour is favoured by low levels of promiscuity leading to high within-group relatedness. However, in vertebrates, cooperation often occurs between non-relatives and promiscuity rates are among the highest recorded. Here we resolve this apparent inconsistency with a phylogenetic analysis of 267 bird species, demonstrating that cooperative breeding is associated with low promiscuity; that in cooperative species, helping is more common when p...

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Authors: Cornwallis, C; West, SA; Davis, K; Griffin, A

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Nature
• Volume: 466
• Issue: 7309
• Pages: 969-972
• Publication date: 2010-08-01
• DOI: 10.1038/nature09335
• EISSN: 1476-4687
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• Language: English
• Keywords: Animals; Siblings; Mothers; Cooperative Behavior; Reproduction; Sexual Behavior, Animal; Fathers; Female; Male; Birds; Models, Biological; Phylogeny; Biological Evolution