Can behavioral evolution be measured on a staircase? a commentary

Abstract

The serious, comparative study of behavioral complexity that Greenberg et al. advocate is a progressive direction for the field, but their proposal to separate comparative psychology from its roots in evolutionary biology seems regressive. Modern evolutionary theory has been broadened within biology to include development and paleontology alongside natural selection, making closer integration with that discipline particularly timely. Such an integrated evolutionary approach in psychology would offer a useful alternative to the adaptationism popularized by evolutionary psychology. Although the differences between comparative psychologists and biologists may be blurred in the process, the behavioral sciences will be better served by a rich biological approach to evolution than by a uniquely psychological approach.

Within- and between-litter maternal care alter behavior and gene regulation in female offspring.

“…A recent study also indicated that levels DNA methylation in the GR1 7 promoter methylation do not differ significantly between mixed-sex litters and female-only litters, suggesting that our epigenetic data may be informative for studies of mix-sex litters (Kosten, Huang, & Nielsen, 2014). Some previous studies, however, have reported that mothers preferentially lick male pups (Moore & Morelli, 1979), potentially as a result of a shorter latency in male offspring to extend their legs and thereby facilitate licking (Moore, 2004). It is thus possible that removal of the male offspring in this study affected the dynamics of interactions between dams and offspring.…”