Evolution and Social Cognition

Among all the human life-history traits, 2 are particularly puzzling:
1) Unlike many animals, human lifespan is very long; but relatively to other primates 2) female fertility window begins particularly early and end quite rapidly with menopause.

Yesterday, the biodemographer Samuel Pavard of the MNHN presented us very interesting insights provided by his work:
- As childhood is particularly long in humans, increased longevity is likely to be due to the importance of adults care for offspring survival.
- As being the child of young parents is advantageous due to the long timespan they can provide care to you and to your future offspring, this favor early puberty.

Besides this, he showed us how taking into account these specificities can help us understand puzzling results in medicine, for example, the fact that late-onset diseases are still under selection pressure (among others, because of the importance of grandparental care).

More about his work can be found here :

PAVARD Samuel L’UMR 7206 "Éco-Anthropologie" est une unité mixte de recherche (UMR) du Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) et de l’Université de Paris. 

Very proud of our beautiful wall, which is now complete. Come to meet us !

[Epigenetic & Poverty]
Tomorrow, at 1pm, Mélusine will present "Genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation in relation to
socioeconomic status during development and early adulthood" by McDade et al.
So as you can understand, we are going to dive deep into the biological level and see what is the epigenetic signature of poverty.
Come in the Pavillon Jardin to hear that!
Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23800

Excellent piece by Hugo Mercier

The smart move: we learn more by trusting than by not trusting – Hugo Mercier | Aeon Ideas People who trust more get better at knowing whom to trust, and so reap the benefits of more friends and more knowledge

[Journal Club - Friday 8th, 1pm- Pavillon Jardin ]

This Friday, we will be receiving Michel Raymond, from Montpellier's Evolutionary Science Institute. He will tell us about the consequences of the industrialization process on handedness, one of the very interesting works he contributed to publishing https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02337619/document . Come to hear, you're welcome!