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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 9, 2026

Place and Response Learning in the Open-field Tower Maze
08:31

Place and Response Learning in the Open-field Tower Maze

Published on: October 28, 2015

Learning, menopause, and the human adaptive complex.

Hillard Kaplan1, Michael Gurven, Jeffrey Winking

  • 1Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA. hkaplan@unm.edu

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
|August 27, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Human menopause evolved due to knowledge transfer and economic contributions, not just aging. Both sexes stop reproducing and invest in offspring, making menopause economically beneficial for families.

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Last Updated: Jun 9, 2026

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04:45

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Published on: September 24, 2008

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Human ecology
  • Anthropology

Background:

  • Menopause is a uniquely human trait.
  • Previous theories focused on somatic senescence or the grandmother hypothesis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a new two-sex, learning- and skills-based theory for the evolution of human menopause.
  • To explain the role of knowledge transfer and economic productivity in menopause evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of human and chimpanzee reproductive patterns.
  • Examination of economic transfers in traditional human societies.

Main Results:

  • Human reproductive senescence precedes somatic senescence, unlike in chimpanzees.
  • In traditional economies, males often cease reproduction concurrently with females.
  • Post-reproductive individuals of both sexes provide net economic benefits to descendants.

Conclusions:

  • Menopause evolved due to its role in facilitating knowledge transfer and post-reproductive economic investment.
  • Delays in menopause would create economic deficits in traditional family structures.