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Ancestral primacy of same-sex sexual behaviour does not explain its stable prevalence in modern populations

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 782–783 (2020)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 20 April 2020

The Original Article was published on 18 November 2019

arising from J. D. Monk et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1019-7 (2019)

Monk et al.1 suggest that same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) was present in ancestral populations alongside different-sex sexual behaviour (DSB). Such indiscriminate behaviour may not have impaired fitness under certain social and ecological circumstances, where sufficient levels of DSB enabled reproduction. The authors see this as a more parsimonious hypothesis compared to a traditional set, which sees current SSB as either a developmental error or conferring some indirect fitness benefits.

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References

  1. Monk, J. D., Giglio, E., Kamath, A., Lambert, M. R. & McDonough, C. E. An alternative hypothesis for the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 3, 1622–1631 (2019).

  2. Dixson, A. in Animal Homosexuality (ed. Poiani, A.) 381–400 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010).

  3. Lehtonen, J., Parker, G. A. & Schärer, L. Why anisogamy drives ancestral sex roles. Evolution 70, 1129–1135 (2016).

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  4. Vasey, P. L. Homosexual behavior in primates: a review of evidence and theory. Int. J. Primatol. 16, 173–204 (1995).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Middlesex University, London, UK

    T. E. Dickins

  2. Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, London, UK

    Q. Rahman

Authors
  1. T. E. Dickins
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  2. Q. Rahman
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Contributions

T.E.D. and Q.R. contributed equally to the development of the argument. T.E.D. led on the writing and Q.R. made contributions to the writing. T.E.D. produced the final agreed edited version.

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Correspondence to T. E. Dickins.

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Dickins, T.E., Rahman, Q. Ancestral primacy of same-sex sexual behaviour does not explain its stable prevalence in modern populations. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 782–783 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1187-5

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