Religious passion for traditions concerning sexual mores and family turns out to be a product of the finer workings of biological and cultural evolution.Ever wondered why many religious people seem to be especially passionate about traditions concerning sexual mores and family? Somewhat ironically, this turns out to be a product of the finer workings of biological and cultural evolution.
Sexual dimorphism, an essential piece of many species’ survival, is the difference in morphological appearance between males and females of the same species. Think Lion King: Simba’s father sported a big bushy orange mane, whereas his mother, also a lion, had no showy neck fur to speak of.
In Part I of a series, author John Long describes his passion for placoderms – and his sudden discovery of live birth in these ancient fish.The story of unraveling placoderm reproduction begins with a 380-million-year-old fossil from the Gogo site, Western Australia, that yielded the oldest evidence of live birth in vertebrates.