How, in the animal world, a daughter avoids mating with her father: Paternal 'voice' recognition
Friday, November 30, 2012 - 00:30
in Biology & Nature
Paternal recognition – being able to identify males from your father’s line – is important for the avoidance of inbreeding, and one way that mammals can do this is through recognizing the calls of paternal kin. This was thought to occur only in large-brained animals with complex social groups, but a new study provides evidence in a tiny, solitary primate that challenges this theory.