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Penguins ❤️ (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

From the penguin documentaries I watched as a kid, I feel like the "leaving eggs behind" might involve relentless bullying.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It takes two penguins working together to care for an egg, if one penguin dies the remaining penguin can't hold the egg and feed itself, so either a couple steps up or a lone penguin joins the remaining penguin, having several homosexual couples who are on standby to take care of orphan eggs is a clear evolutionary advantage.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I'd be cautious with saying evolutionary advantage here.

I don't believe the "Gay Uncle hypothesis" any more than the somewhat debunked "Grandmother Hypothesis", which aimed to explain menopause with biological altruism. Just because we could think of a way in that it might be advantageous for a species doesn't mean it's advantageous for an individuals fitness.

Of course, it can be still an advantage, but we'd only know with more free, uncensored research.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Does evolutionary pressure only exist on individuals? I've never heard that. There's a wide variety of species that are highly socially organized, do you not accept that that's through evolutionarily pressure?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I never said that. What I meant is that a behaviour, which benefits a species as a whole but reduces one individual's fitness, is not evolutionary competitive. It's evolutionary game theory, like the prisoners dilemma from normal game theory.

And to determine if some behaviour is such a dilemma, you have to consider costs and benefits of it, which is not at all clear in natural situations. That's why I said it needs to be studied.

But I must concede, I sort of assumed what exactly you called an evolutionary advantage. Common homosexuality in penguins or not discriminating against homosexual individuals in penguins have very different analysis here.

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this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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