Oliver Conway

So what I did in the study was look at the proportion of full siblings versus half siblings we see in human societies and compare that to other mammals.

So for all the mammal data, it's all genetic.

For some of the human data, it's

It's genetic, including some archaeological samples that go back several thousand years.

But some of the human data is actually based on what people have told us.

My paper doesn't directly address the question of why monogamy evolved.

One of the leading hypotheses is about resource distribution.

In some species, groups of females can live together and don't need to compete for resources intensely, so they can live in groups.

And in that situation...

If you then have males distribute themselves around those females, it's difficult to get monogamy going.

But in some species, you have females who control the territory and don't compete with their neighbours.

So in that case, monogamy gets going more readily.

Anthropologist Mark Dybul.

The best-selling author Sophie Kinsella has died at the age of just 55.

The shopaholic series writer, whose real name was Madeleine Sophie Wickham, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2022.

Lizo Mazimba looks back at her career.

She sold almost 45 million copies of her books around the world, with her best-selling Shopaholic series making her one of the UK's most famous authors.

Like the book's central character, Sophie Kinsella started out as a financial journalist who wasn't great with money.

But Kinsella's writing made her a literary superstar, the first two Shopaholic books being made into a Hollywood film.

A film which at times felt semi-autobiographical.