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Female Mountain Gorillas Stop Reproducing Long Before the End of Their Lives, Study Finds
15 Articles
15 Articles
Evolution: Why do grandmothers in some species live so long? The phenomenon has long been a mystery in biology. Also…
Female mountain gorillas stop reproducing long before the end of their lives, study finds
New research from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Turku reveals that female mountain gorillas, like humans and a handful of other mammals, can live long past the birth of their last offspring.
Gorilla women continue to live in the wilderness for an amazingly long time after their last birth. A research team wants to find out the reason for this biological peculiarity and at the same time questions the grandmother's thesis.
Researchers have investigated data from over 30 years and found that gorilla mothers continue to live long after the last birth – similar to humans. The so-called mother hypothesis may be used.
Gorillas are similar to humans: females often live on for many years, although they can no longer have offspring. From an evolutionary point of view, this is unusual. Researchers discuss several possible explanations for this.
Not many animal species live significantly longer than they can reproduce - because from an evolutionary point of view this seems absurd. Why is this different with whales, humans and gorillas?
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