Contact: Lee J. Siegel
lee.siegel@utah.edu
801-581-8993
University of Utah

Kristen Hawkes, University of Utah

Caption: Kristen Hawkes, a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, is publishing a new study in which a computer simulation of evolution provides support for her controversial "grandmother hypothesis." The theory says that because a few older women among human ancestors began caring for their grandchildren, their daughters could have more children at shorter intervals, and that women ended up evolving long postmenopausal lifespans, unlike female apes who rarely survive past their childbearing years.

Credit: Lee J. Siegel, University of Utah.

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