Hunter-gatherers agree on what is moral, but not who is moral
In determining whether there is a universal concept of moral character, research could provide insight into ways to improve our interactions with one another.
People learn either by observing those around them or by innovating. A new study from Penn biologists Marco Smolla and Erol Akçay demonstrates how cultures can evolve based on what kind of learning and skills are required to thrive within them.
A society’s cultural practices shape the structure of its social networks
Biologists Erol Akçay and Marco Smolla used mathematical models to show that societies that favor generalists, who have a wide range of skills, are less well-connected than those societies that favor specialists, who are highly skilled at a smaller number of traits.
An artist’s rendering of Auroraceratops shows its bipedal posture as well as the beak and frill that characterize it as a member of the horned dinosaurs. Paleontologists from Penn led a team in characterizing this species, discovered in China. (Illustration: Robert Walters)
Small horned dinosaur from China, a Triceratops relative, walked on two feet
Auroraceratops, a bipedal dinosaur that lived roughly 115 million years ago, has been newly described by an international team of researchers led by Peter Dodson of the School of Arts and Sciences and School of Veterinary Medicine.
Do you change direction when you see a black cat approaching? A game theory-driven model developed by two theoretical biologists at Penn shows how such superstitions can catch on.
How superstitions spread
Superstitious beliefs may seem irrational, but they catch on in a society. Using an evolutionary approach to studying the emergence of coordinated behaviors, Erol Akçay and Bryce Morsky showed how a jumble of individual beliefs, including superstitions, coalesce into an accepted social norm.
Bacterial population growth rate linked to how individual cells control their size
Developed at Penn, a theoretical model from a new area of research at the interface of math, physics, and biology describes how individual parameters can influence population-level dynamics.
What does a dolphin have in common with a fruit fly?
To determine what goes on during sleep, a trio of Penn experts studied sleep function across phylogeny—that is, the evolutionary development of species—to find the origins of the need for sleep.
Threespine stickleback, which occupy lakes across the northern latitudes, are a tiny fish with an outsize impact on evolutionary research. Penn biologist Seth Rudman has found that a single gene affects the way they interact with their environment. (Photo: Seth Rudman)
How one gene in a tiny fish may alter an aquatic ecosystem
Linking genomics to evolution to ecology, the work takes an unusual approach to reveal broad implications of how species adapt to their local environment.
Colin Twomey studies how groups, both human and animal, make collective decisions. His research covers a variety of topics, including fish behavior and human color perception.
How do individual decisions affect group decisions?
Postdoctoral fellow Colin Twomey looks to fish behavior to explore the dynamic between individual and group decision-making.
A new study answers a fundamental question in human evolution about how and where hair grows on the body, and reveals the existence of a naturally-occurring inhibitor to hair growth.
