Institute of Evolutionary Sciences - Montpellier

During the last century, we have witnessed the triumph of evolutionary biology in explaining the living world. The cause of this success is the fact that since Darwinian evolution, based on natural selection, is the central process building living beings and their interactions, only studies based on this theory are able to improve the understanding of biology. Despite the huge explanatory power of evolutionary biology, its application to the human species is still stammering in France (for several reasons related to the history of sciences)
 
Our main research topics are:

1) The evolution of laterality
There is a polymorphism of handedness in human populations (right- and left-handers). This trait is inherited, variable and subject to selective pressures that are not well identified. The aim is to investigate the selective forces acting on laterality differences, and to understand the coexistence, in every human population, of right- and left-handers.

  

2) Familial ecology
The human family is constituted of individuals who are genetically close, and who therefore share common genetic interests. However, they are also conflicts between them (sensus Trivers), due to resources limitation, paternity uncertainty and mating systems. The study of these interactions, which are specific to the familial environment, is named familial ecology. Two main types of conflicts are studied: conflicts between siblings for parental investment, and their link with birth order; conflicts related to paternity uncertainty, and their link with the evolution of resemblance between children and their parents.

  
3) Sexual selection
There is a sexual dimorphism in humans (differences between men and women), as in other animals (including primates). Whereas the origin of this dimorphism is well studied in animals, it is poorly understood in humans. It is significantly variable across countries, and this opens new intercultural research directions.
  
4) Evolutionary primatology
The more the knowledge on primates’ lives and behaviours has been improved (mainly around the end of the 20th century), the more it has become obvious that differences between humans and other primates are only quantitative, and we differ from our cousins only by degrees (sometimes measurable). In this wider context, allowing a better understanding of human behaviours, we have established collaborations with primatology.
  
   
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