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Letter: Why menopause?

Published 21 January 2009

From Austin Murphy

The evolutionarily perplexing phenomenon of menopause (13 December 2008, p 41) might actually be explained within the context of preventing the genetic disaster of children being born out of incest. In particular, females could freely have offspring by any male in the new clan to which they were sent at puberty with limited risk of incest, at the same time that menopause ensured that males could also have sexual relations with anyone in their own clan with limited risk of children being born of mating relatives.

Lake Orion, Michigan, US

Issue no. 2692 published 24 January 2009

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