Evolutionary Questions Before the Court AgainAfter reading the below article from the Guardian, I looked around and realized that cannibalism has actually become a hot topic among biologists lately.
THE family of a woman, allegedly killed and eaten by her boyfriend in Spain, are finally seeing her suspected murderer come to trial after a three-year wait.
This week Spanish authorities announced that Paul Durant, also wanted in England on armed robbery charges, is going to stand trial for the murder of Karen Durrell on November 3.
The body of the mother-of-two, who lived near Repton Park in Woodford Bridge, has never been found and the 47-year-old former convict allegedly confessed he ate her saying God delivered her to him.
On hearing of the trial, due to go ahead in Alicante, southeast Spain, Ms Durrell's sister Jackie Wood said: "Whilst as a family we are pleased that a trial date has been fixed, we don't see that the court case will bring us any closure.
"The only way we can feel more at peace and move on in our lives is through understanding what happened to Karen and being able to bring her back to this country to rest in peace.
"We remain extremely upset by what has happened to Karen."
Karen Durrell moved to Spain in January 2004 to start a new life but within weeks she was dead, the only trace of her left on bloodstained knives found in her flat in the holiday hotspot of Calpe near Benidorm.
Convicted armed robber and fugitive from justice Durant was arrested by the Spanish authorities in March 2004. He then wrote to a newspaper confessing he was a cannibal who had killed and eaten the 41-year-old from Emsworth Road after God sent her to him.
He wrote: "I believed God had delivered her to me and I was getting messages from the telly. After I killed her, I cut her body into small parts, eating what parts of her I found eatable. I finally disposed of what was left in small rubbish bags."
Investigators spent weeks searching in the rubbish bins around Ms Durrell's Spanish home but failed to find her body, only discovering a blood stained suitcase of hers.
Paul Durant escaped from British police custody while at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel following his arrest on suspicion of armed robbery in December 2003.
He has never formally confessed to the killing and eating of Karen Durrell.
10:00am Thursday 14th June 2007
By Sara Dixon
The topic was addressed a little more nakedly, and humorously by the Star in their article.
Both however failed to put it into its proper objective context.
Both however failed to put it into its proper objective context.
It is difficult to see how filial cannibalism, the consumption of one’s own offspring, can be an adaptive evolutionary strategy. It is, however, common in many animals, and surprisingly is often coupled with parental care, according to a report published by Oxford University Zoologist Dr Michael Bonsall, and Hope Klug from the University of Florida, in this month’s American Naturalist.
Funded by the Royal Society and the National Science Foundation, “When to care for, abandon, or eat your offspring: the evolution of parental care and filial cannibalism,” highlights the potential importance of a range of factors in the evolution of filial cannibalism using a mathematical model of analysis. It is potentially affected by the ability to selectively consume lower quality offspring, preferences associated with mate choice, density-mediated survival, and population dynamics.
Professor Michael Bonsall, a Royal Society Research Fellow and University Lecturer in Mathematical Biology at Oxford University, said: ‘This sort of behaviour - cannibalising your offspring - is widespread amongst different animal groups. We show that there is not a single benefit to eating your offspring, and it depends on several factors and explanations.’
Caring females such as the bank vole, the house finch, and the wolf spider often consume their young, and both parents of the burying beetle are known to consume some of their offspring. Filial cannibalism has also been well documented in fish species with paternal care during the egg stage.
It was previously thought that energetic need alone is the primary factor leading to filial cannibalism, in that a caring parent gains energy and nutrients from consuming its offspring, which are then reinvested into future reproductive events. However, the researchers found that a reduction in brood size reduces anticipated competition and thus affects survival of the remaining offspring.
The ability to abandon or consume offspring during the course of parental care can actually help the evolution of parent care. An analysis of the evolutionary dynamics of offspring abandonment, filial cannibalism, and parental care illustrates that these behaviours have the potential to coexist.
Source: Oxford University
http://www.physorg.com/And...Speaker gives insight on cannibalism
By: Hannah Tomlin
Posted: 10/26/07
Many scientists have been studying cannibalism over the past century.
On Thursday, Oct. 25, the department of biological sciences, Phi Sigma, and The Herman Brockman Fund sponsored Dr. Chad Johnson, behavior ecologist and alumni of Illinois State University, who presented his speech, "The Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of Cannibalism (Sexual and Otherwise): Why can't spiders just get along?"
Scott Sakala, distinguished professor, said that Johnson "obtained his masters working in my lab in 1998."
He explained that Herman Brockman is a "professor emeritus in the department and the first professor in the University to be appointed distinguished professor." Sakala introduced Johnson.
"I couldn't be more pleased or honored to be invited back for a Brockman seminar," Johnson said. During his speech, Johnson explained the work he did to obtain his Ph. D at the University of Kentucky and the research he is performing now.
Johnson explained the concept of precopulatory sexual cannibalism, which he described as an intra-specific, inter-sexual predation of a mate before sperm transfer. "It's a poster child for sexual conflict," said Johnson.
He used North American fishing spiders for an example of a species that takes part in sexual cannibalism.
These large spiders are associated with an aquatic habitat.
The female spiders attack the males during the transfer of sperm.
Johnson said these spiders are, "One of the few species where we have frequent occurrences of sexual cannibalism."
In this type of spider, males can sometimes be 10 times smaller than females.
However, Darwin suggested that male dwarfism is a good thing, according to Johnson.
"If there is a risk that the female will attack you and you are small, she might not attack you, "Johnson said.
He explained that males are food as well as sperm, and if females are going to attack, they need to know which is more important beforehand.
"You can't have a lot of offspring and you can't have a big egg sack unless you feed well," Johnson said.
More recently, Johnson has been studying widow spiders. "Widow spiders are the most infamous spiders out there," Johnson said.
According to Johnson, these spiders populate in areas of vast urban growth and are infamous for the medical concerns that come with their bites.
A study performed by one of his first students, Kathryn Kitchen, called "The Effects of Kin Selection and Family on Juvenile Cannibalism in the Black Widow Spider", won an award.
The study showed that feeding the spiders makes them more likely to cannibalize.
Johnson said the study revealed "Babies eating their brothers and sisters and ones they weren't related to months before they were reproductively mature." © Copyright 2007 The Daily Vidette
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