The Evolutionary Case for Female Promiscuity

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	The Evolutionary Case for Female Promiscuity

haraya

11-12-2006 9:08 AM

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tags:

nature, evolution, sex, survival, life, biology, science, gender

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/f9c5557b-db69-4dfc-9a70-34a26dfc8784/C09B9C44-CF88-49D8-968C-2EF06662EFFF/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.slate.com/id/2152452/" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2152452/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.slate.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2152452/"><STRONG>Evolution favors female promiscuity.</STRONG> In a study of mouse-like marsupials, "survival of babies with promiscuous mothers was almost three times as high as those in the monogamous group." <A target="_blank" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061102/sc_afp/australiascience_061102095419">Key reasons</A>: 1) "The sperm of some males were far more successful than others." 2) "Babies fathered by these males were twice as likely to survive." Takeaway for women: "Polyandry improves female lifetime fitness." Takeaway for men: "Males with more competitive ejaculates sire more viable offspring." Fine print:  "Males usually died after a short and intense single mating season due to exhaustion and aggressive encounters with other males." (Did we mention that female promiscuity promotes <A href="http://www.slate.com/id/2134651/">big testicles and small brains</A> in males? </blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/C09B9C44-CF88-49D8-968C-2EF06662EFFF/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>