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Chimpanzees Go Through Menopause, Too (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It is not obvious why selection should favor menopause or the continued survival of individuals that can no longer reproduce. The famous Grandmother Hypothesis had been used to explain the evolutionary significance of menopause. A new study conducted on the Ngogo chimpanzees community of wild chimpanzees in Uganda challenges this hypothesis. Science 27 Oct 2023 Vol 382, Issue 6669 DOI: 10.1126/science.add547

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It becomes the same explanation once you take into account that younger females don't care about the rest of the clan - because they are not her relatives. Only the older females have some reason to shut down the mechanism.