Humans rank between meerkats and beavers in monogamy 'league table'
Phys.org••world
Key Points:
- A University of Cambridge study led by Dr. Mark Dyble finds that humans exhibit higher levels of exclusive mating (monogamy) than most primates, with a 66% rate of full siblings, placing humans seventh among socially monogamous mammals.
- The study uses a novel computational model analyzing the proportions of full versus half-siblings across species and human populations to estimate monogamy rates, offering a more direct measure than previous fossil or behavioral studies.
- Humans show monogamy rates comparable to species like meerkats (60%) and beavers (73%), but far above most non-human primates such as chimpanzees (4%) and mountain gorillas (6%), highlighting a unique evolutionary shift from non-monogamous group
