Our species’ long childhood is hypothesized to have evolved as a period for learning complex foraging skills. Researchers have focused on assessing this hypothesis, yet studies present inconsistent conclusions regarding the connection between niche complexity, the development of foraging skill development, and ecological knowledge . I will present three studies addressing this hypothesis using both cross cultural […]

Risk perception – or an individual's susceptibility to perceive a threat (e.g. disease, predator, competitor) – has shaped the physiology, cognition, behavior and ecology of animals for millions of years. While a lot of research has focused on lethal threats (i.e. predation), only recently have we increased our understanding of how animals, and more particularly […]

Wild orangutans inhabit extremely variable dietary environments with fluctuations in fruit availability that cause significant changes in their dietary compositions and total caloric intake. Many studies on mammals and primates show clear signals of seasonal variation in gut microbiota. A few primate studies demonstrate that gut microbiota may be helping hosts maintain energy balance during […]

Résumé: L'écologie évolutive de la santé des femmes : une approche bioculturelle Être une femme est-il une maladie ? Cette question provocatrice souligne la pathologisation traditionnelle de la fonction reproductive féminine dans la biomédecine occidentale depuis le 19e siècle. Récemment, les sciences sociales ont lancé un appel pour dépasser les recherches sur le 'bikini', c'est-à-dire […]

Understanding and predicting human cooperative behavior and beliefs dynamics remain a major challenge both from the scientific and practical perspectives. Because of the complexity and multiplicity of material, social and cognitive factors involved both empirical and theoretical work tend to focus only on some snippets of the puzzle. Recently, a mathematical theory has been proposed […]