Date: March, 2006
Source: Science Daily
Researchers at the Laboratoire d’Écologie at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (Ecole Normale Supérieure/CNRS) and the Royal Holloway College (London, United Kingdom) have just explained the evolution of altruistic behavior in animals.
In nature animals have been observed cooperating, and the detection of a genetic predisposition to this type of behavior contradicts Darwin’s theory of evolution which predicts a better survival rate for the most selfish animals. The use of mathematic modeling has provided a new explanation for the surprising persistence of this type of behavior which appears, at first sight, to be detrimental to the animal adopting it.
This work is published in Nature on 30 March 2006.