Overview
- Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study models monogamy by comparing proportions of full versus half siblings across species.
- Humans average a 66% full‑sibling rate—seventh overall—between beavers (~73%) and meerkats (60%) in a comparative “premier league” of monogamy.
- The human dataset spans 103 populations, from Neolithic Anatolia and Bronze Age Europe to modern societies, compared with data from roughly 34 other mammal species.
- The measure reflects reproductive, not sexual, behavior, and the authors note that cultural practices such as contraception can decouple mating from births.
- Nonhuman primates rank very low (chimpanzees ~4%, mountain gorillas ~6%); the authors argue higher human monogamy supported paternal investment and cooperation, with even the lowest human cases (~26%) exceeding the highest non‑monogamous mammals (~22%).