Of the 8.7 million species on Earth, why are human beings the only one that paints self-portraits, walks on the Moon and worships gods? For decades, many scholars have argued that the difference stems from our ability to learn from each other. But extensive data has emerged suggesting that other animals, including bees, chimpanzees and crows, can also generate cultural complexity through social learning.

In the Integrative Anthropology Lab at UC Davis, Manvir Singh combines evolutionary, cognitive and sociocultural methods and theory to tease apart the origins of human behavior and societies.

The book Father Time is a personal investigation into the deep history of male care, beginning with the very first caretakers, male ones among fish over 400 million years ago, through eons of mammalian and primate evolution.

When it comes to the architecture of the human genome, it’s only a matter of time before harmful genes arise in a population. These mutations accumulate in the gene pool, primarily affected by a population’s size and practices like marrying within a small community. New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal provides rare direct evidence showing that increased homozygosity leads to negative effects on fertility in a human population.