The Clever Way Females Fend Off Male Fish with Big Genitals

By Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor | November 23, 2016 09:47am ET 

Male mosquitofish with bigger genitals are typically best at coercing females into the "sack," but now researchers have found that females that are not interested in such pushy lovers grow bigger brains to fight back.

Having more brain power may give the females the smarts they need to find clever ways of avoiding male assaults, researchers said.

This is just one example of the arms race that takes place between the sexes. The conflict arises in the animal kingdom because of the different strategies that males and females often take when it comes to continuing their genetic legacies. Females of most species are typically seen as choosy about their mates, because they often have to pay a high biological price for bearing offspring. On the other hand, sex usually exacts a low biological toll on males, so an approach that they frequently pursue is to mate as often as possible.

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Complex thinking goes beyond primates: Dolphins understand zero, elephants rescue each other

WASHINGTON — It’s not just man’s closer primate relatives that exhibit brain power. Dolphins, dogs and elephants are teaching us a few lessons, too.

Dolphin brains involve completely different wiring from primates, especially in the neocortex, which is central to higher functions such as reasoning and conscious thought.

Dolphins are so distantly related to humans that it’s been 95 million years since we had even a remotely common ancestor. Yet when it comes to intelligence, social behavior and communications, some researchers say dolphins come as close to humans as our ape and monkey cousins.

Maybe closer.

“They understand concepts like zero, abstract concepts. They do everything that chimpanzees do and bonobos can do,” said Lori Marino, a neuroscientist at Emory University who specializes in dolphin research. “The fact is that they are so different from us and so much like us at the same time.”

In recent years, animal researchers have found that thought processes in critters aren’t a matter of how closely related they are to humans. You don’t have to be a primate to be smart.

Continued:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/complex-thinking-goes-beyond-primates-dolphins-understand-zero-elephants-rescue-each-other/2012/06/24/gJQAEPDZzV_story.html