Tag: "kin" at biology news

Plants recognize their siblings, biologists discover

...y Letters. “The ability to recognize and favour kin is common in animals, but this is the first time i...a pot, the root interactions may provide a cue for kin recognition.” Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of comple...

Mule deer moms rescue other fawns

...efies traditional explanations that parental care, kin selection or reciprocity play a part in the defence of fawns other than their own. But while the study's findings seem to point to mule deer as superior mothers, the motivation for looking out for other fawns is likely based not on altruism but on si...

Invasive ants territorial when neighbors are not kin

...a better understanding of how the ants distinguish kin from non-kin, and the mechanisms that prevent gene flow between colonies, might lead to more effective ways to control the ants. That would be good news for anyone surrounded by the pervasive creatures. "When people saw that the ants from diffe...

Why do some queen bees eat their worker bee's eggs?

... his "relatedness hypothesis", a major landmark in kin selection theory. His hypothesis was that worker bees, wasps and ants do not reproduce because most workers are half sisters. Instead the workers favor the queen's male progeny, since she has mated with multiple males, ensuring variation in the speci...

Helping in a selfish world

...ed the evolution of co-operation using the idea of kin selection. Help to relatives (who share your genes) makes sense if it means your relative will have more children who will carry your genes into the next generation. Therefore, relatives are expected to help more. However, in a study published today ...

Can our genes tell the story of our divergence?

...red a knack for abstract thought while our next of kin learned to use tools, and developed the skills to construct tree-bound nests high above the forest floor. We differ by just a tad over 1% at the DNA sequence level, yet scientists predict that both species should harbor genetic footprints of our dive...

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