[spydar]

this is a completely useless post, just sorta a "did ya know?" kinda thing.


so I just got out of school and my last lecture was for evolutionary anthropology. in it we were discussing various parental investment strategies and potential reproductive success in mammals. the premise is that male mammals (for the most part) are encouraged towards promiscuity because that is the best reproductive strategy to ensure their genes survive. this is because of the "choosiness" of females, who put in much more energy into carrying and raising offspring. a female produces a limited amount of nutrient rich eggs while males have basically DNA with a tail. the eggs and carrying the child takes more energy so they are enabled (and in truth requried) to be much more picky about whom to reproduce with. while males, whose reproductive cells take much less energy (and they have much more of them) need to spread their seed among more females in hopes of increasing their reproductive success. the only factor limiting reproductive success among female mammals is access to food, but with males it's access to receptive females.

don't know if that makes any sense or is in any way interesting, and it is of course not the ONLY reason, but it made a few things click to me. and don't get me started on reproductive strategies in detail (such as monogamy) unless you want yet another long-winded and involved post.

thats the problem with getting an education, I learn something new and instantly start over-analysing everything.