MetaFilter posts tagged with sex and evolution

"dawn of the deed"

flex — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:19:03 -0800

Secrets of T-Rex sex! An interview with John Long, author of The Dawn of the Deed: The Prehistoric Origins of Sex. Long's four-part series on Evolution: This View of Life - 1) Down and Dirty in the Devonian; 2) Palaeozoic Paternity Problems; 3) From Bones to Behavior; 4) From Clasper to Penis. Also a Scientific American video ("Long discusses a fossil central to this new view of the origin of copulation and live birth: a 375-million-year-old expectant mother fish dubbed Materpiscis attenboroughi").

Sex crazed, but not too picky

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:33:00 -0800

Nature constantly engineers new and creative solutions to all sorts of problems—turning our stereotypes about sex upside-down along the way.

Sexless Males Screw Society

bookman117 — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:07:50 -0800

Why Polygamy is Bad for Society "A new study out of the University of British Columbia documents how societies have systematically evolved away from polygamy because of the social problems it causes. The Canadian researchers are really talking about polygyny, which is the term for one man with multiple wives, and which is by far the most common expression of polygamy. Women are usually thought of as the primary victims of polygynous marriages, but as cultural anthropologist Joe Henrich documents, the institution also causes problems for the young, low-status males denied wives by older, wealthy men who have hoarded all the women. And those young men create problems for everybody."

Don't get me wrong, yeah I think you're alright; But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night

Orange Pamplemousse — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:12:29 -0800

Gender Differences and Casual Sex: The New Research Dr. Terri D. Conley at the University of Michigan has been doing some research into "the large differences between women and men in preferences for casual sex." Her research suggests that the difference in promiscuity is because "male proposers were perceived (by women) as more dangerous and less likely to provide them sexual satisfaction than women were perceived (by men)." Nominated one of the best blog posts of 2011.

The Cartoon Guide to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Rhaomi — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:20:53 -0800

Larry Gonick is a veteran American cartoonist best known for his delightful comic-book guides to science and history, many of which have previews online. Chief among them is his long-running Cartoon History of the Universe (later The Cartoon History of the Modern World), a sprawling multi-volume opus documenting everything from the Big Bang to the Bush administration. Published over the course of three decades, it takes a truly global view -- its time-traveling Professor thoroughly explores not only familiar topics like Rome and World War II but the oft-neglected stories of Asia and Africa, blending caricature and myth with careful scholarship (cited by fun illustrated bibliographies) and tackling even the most obscure events with intelligence and wit. This savvy satire carried over to Gonick's Zinn-by-way-of-Pogo chronicle The Cartoon History of the United States, along with a bevy of Cartoon Guides to other topics, including Genetics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, The Environment, and (yes!) Sex. Gonick has also maintained a few sideprojects, such as a webcomic look at Chinese invention, assorted math comics (previously), the Muse magazine mainstay Kokopelli & Co. (featuring the shenanigans of his "New Muses"), and more. See also these lengthy interview snippets, linked previously. Want more? Amazon links to the complete oeuvre inside! Reading note: All the book titles in the post above link to readable versions on the web. Some of the older Cartoon Guides and the first chunk of the original Cartoon History of the Universe comics (through Volume 9 -- ancient China) are available in full; the rest, including the (two-part) Modern World series and The United States, are available partially through Harper-Collins' free book preview feature, which includes the first dozen or so pages of each book and then jumps ahead randomly from there to the end. So pay attention to the page numbers on those links to avoid getting caught off guard by the (unannounced) page-skips! Amazon links:

Cartoon History: The Cartoon History of the Universe I (Vol. 1-7): From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great (1990) The Cartoon History of the Universe II (Vol. 8-13): From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (1994) The Cartoon History of the Universe III (Vol. 14-19): From the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance (2002) The Cartoon History of the United States (1991) The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution (2007) The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 2: From the Bastille to Baghdad (2009) Cartoon Guides: The Cartoon Guide to Genetics (1983) The Cartoon Guide to the Computer (1991) The Cartoon Guide to Physics (1992) The Cartoon Guide to (Non) Communication (1993) The Cartoon Guide to Statistics (1994) The Cartoon Guide to the Environment (1996) The Cartoon Guide to Sex (1999) The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry (2005) Other: Kokopelli & Company in Attack of the Smart Pies (2005)

The Evolved Slut

kitarra — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:34:15 -0800

Husband-and-wife team Christopher Ryan and Calcilda Jethá have written a book, Sex at Dawn, that challenges what they describe as the "standard narrative" of human sexual and social relationships. In a recent Savage Love podcast featuring Ryan as a guest, Dan Savage described the book as "...the single most important book about human sexuality since Alfred Kinsey unleashed Sexual Behavior in the Human Male on the American public in 1948." First tearing down theories of humans as naturally monogamous or polygynous creatures, Ryan and Jethá then present an alternative theory that in pre-agrarian times, our forager/hunter-gatherer ancestors would have formed small, close-knit resource sharing societies in which sex was a resource that, like food, was freely shared (NSFW). Jealousy over paternity would not have been an issue because without permanent homes or difficult-to-replace individual belongings, inheritance was moot; also, the cultures would tend toward belief in partible paternity, in which all a woman's sex parters contribute to the creation of her fetus. The book advocates tolerance and understanding of natural human desires for promiscuity, rather than proscribing that we alter our society to mimic the environment of evolutionary adaptedness that spawned us.

The Authors Forgot About Rock and Roll

l33tpolicywonk — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:21:15 -0800

An article in the June issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society of the Biological Sciences finds that "differences in reproductive strategies are driving individuals' different views on recreational drugs": namely, that views on sexual promiscuity are more closely related to views on recreational drug use than religion, political affiliation or other predictors. The study suggests attitudes against recreational drug use are an evolutionary attempt to promote reproductive stability.

The duck's penis

chorltonmeateater — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:42:28 -0800

Carl Zimmer on the duck's incredibly long, corkscrew-shaped, ballistic penis.

My tale is rich with deep scientific significance, resplendent with surprising insights into how evolution works, far beyond the banalities of “survival of the fittest,” off in a realm of life where sexual selection and sexual conflict work like a pair sculptors drunk on absinthe, transforming biology into forms unimaginable. But this story is also accompanied with video. High-definition, slow-motion duck sex video. And I would imagine that the sight of spiral-shaped penises inflating in less than a third of second might be considered in some quarters to be not exactly safe for work. It’s certainly not appropriate for ducklings.

[As Carl says, video links are possibly NSFW.] Ed Yong has another good write-up of the same subject at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

If music be the food of love, play on...

rocket88 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:15:13 -0800

Why music? Music is a human universal, but why did we evolve a desire to create, perform, and enjoy it? From a biological standpoint, does it contribute to survival or, more likely, mate selection and reproduction?

Hands On A Hard Body

fourcheesemac — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:58:46 -0800

Sex at the Olympics. "I am often asked if the Olympic village . . . is the sex-fest it is cracked up to be. My answer is always the same: too right it is." Table tennis Olympian Matthew Syed dishes the dirt. (possibly NSFW, TimesOnline).

Being slightly evil ensures a prolific sex life

stbalbach — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:27:27 -0800

'Bad is good as a mating strategy' (NewScientist PDF | plain text). "Nice guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls." Being slightly evil ensures a prolific sex life according to a survey of more than 35,000 people in 57 countries. (ABC News: Why Nice Guys Finish Last).

Men will be men

pezdacanuck — Tue, 23 May 2006 09:31:04 -0800

Sexual ornaments grow out of all proportion It seems that men will be men throughout the animal kindom, not just our little lonely corner of of it. Most body parts grow proportionally with the rest of the body as individuals of a species become larger, although scientists have long known that visual cues of reproductive prowess are a special case. But is this the case with everyone?

Secrets of the X chromosome, revealed!

kliuless — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 22:26:27 -0800

Female X chromosome 'cracked' - "The discovery, by an international consortium of scientists, shows that females are far more variable than previously thought and, when it comes to genes, more complex than men." Nature reports two new studies; one on the complete sequencing of the X chromosome for humans, which sheds some light on how sex evolved and how women differ from men, and another on how women express many genes from X chromosomes previously thought dormant.

titboy — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 12:48:34 -0800

This news item turned out to be a hoax. Has Reuters been fooled again? I certainly smell a rat... (I know the original mefi link pointed to the BBC, but the BBC picked it up from Reuters)