SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: Babysitting Mammals Keep It in the Family

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Evolutionary biologist Susanne Shultz at the University of Manchester, who has studied links between social life and brain evolution, agrees that the challenges to animals living in groups consisting of highly or barely related individuals are quite different. “I think this distinction is an important one, and this analysis makes a massive contribution to the discussion,” Shultz says. “Not just about the nature of social complexity, but the evolution of cooperation as well.”