Animals don’t mind inbreeding - including humans? (Colt clan style) - Printable Version +- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com) +-- Forum: Culture (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-49.html) +--- Forum: Style & Fashion (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-132.html) +--- Thread: Animals don’t mind inbreeding - including humans? (Colt clan style) (/thread-10286.html) |
Animals don’t mind inbreeding - including humans? (Colt clan style) - C C - May 5, 2021 https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/animals-dont-mind-inbreeding/ EXCERPTS: Because it’s evolutionarily unfavourable, there is a common assumption that animals will avoid mating with relatives. Inbreeding can lead to ‘inbreeding depression’: a reduction in available traits for offspring, making the population less genetically diverse and thus less able to adapt to their environments. But nature doesn’t operate with a genetic testing kit in hand. A new meta-analysis in Nature Ecology & Evolution has found that on the whole, animals – even humans – don’t avoid inbreeding. [...] “People assume that animals should avoid mating with a relative when given the chance,” she adds. “But evolutionary theory has been telling us that animals should tolerate, or even prefer, mating with relatives under a broad range of conditions for more than four decades.” This rule also holds true for humans, showing people are not hardwired to avoid mating with relatives – something royal historians have been pointing out for centuries. [...] The study also highlights publication bias in the field, suggesting that studies were more likely to get published if they showed evidence of inbreeding avoidance... (MORE - details) - - - - - - Points scored for Anti-Atlanticism? Yet another blow to W.E.I.R.D. culture (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) that introduced the irregularly violated, cousin incest taboo: https://www.scivillage.com/thread-7818-post-32888.html#pid32888 |