They all do it every which way. (bonobos)

Sam Pawlett rsp at uniserve.com
Wed Jun 23 23:38:50 PDT 1999


Lisa & Ian Murray wrote:
>
> part of this may be due to lack of std's in the bonobos physiological
> history...it would be interesting to know about parental care of those
> offspring with birth defects....
>

Interesting. As you probably know, on the classic neo-Darwinian theory of sex developed by Hamilton, Williams and Maynard Smith the ONLY reason for reproducing sexually vs. asexually is faster adaptation and mutation to avoid disease and parasites. That the bonobos reproduce often with many different partners suggests very rapid mutation and thus a great resistance to disease, meaning a low rate of std's. I would guess that those born with birth defects would be neglected. Hope I got that right;-)

Sam Pawlett



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