Delaney Knorr, Duke University -- Title: Evolutionary Constraints on Human Pregnancy: How Social Environments and Energetic Limits Shape Maternal-Fetal Health
2026-01-05 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract: Human pregnancy is an energetically demanding and socially embedded process that requires mothers to balance competing physiological needs while maintaining fetal development. In this talk, I integrate biocultural and mechanistic approaches to examine how social, ecological, and energetic environments become biologically embedded during gestation. Drawing on mixed-methods research with Latina women in the U.S., I show how neighborhood context, discrimination, and sociopolitical stress shape maternal psychological distress, and how support from allomothers buffers these effects. I then present evidence from immunological and placental biology indicating that maternal stress is linked to reductions in regulatory T cells and placental extracellular vesicles, revealing potential pathways through which social experience influences maternal-fetal communication and immune tolerance. Finally, I discuss findings from a project measuring total energy expenditure in pregnancy using doubly labeled water to test whether physical activity and psychosocial stress push gestation toward a metabolic ceiling. Together, this work highlights how social environments and energetic constraints jointly structure maternal-fetal trade-offs.
Zoom link for those unable to attend in person:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Katie Starkweather, UCSB. Title: Climate Change, Women's Work, and Child Health in Bangladeshi Shodagor Communities
2026-01-26 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract: Climate change is a growing threat to population health globally, with infants and young children living in low income and lower-and-middle income countries at particularly high risk of experiencing health and nutritional challenges. The sources of these challenges include alterations to breastfeeding practices, decreased access to food, due to lower crop and fishing yields and higher food prices, and increased disease transmission, as well as myriad other issues. In some cases, women’s work may exacerbate challenges, while in others it can buffer them, and evolutionary theory provides a useful framework for understanding some of these nuanced differences. Traditionally boat-dwelling, semi-nomadic Shodagor fisher-trader communities in rural Bangladesh are facing increasing exposure to extreme flooding and extreme heat. In my talk, I will discuss recent studies examining the impacts of extreme weather on Shodagor children’s growth and nutritional outcomes. I will highlight the critical role that women’s work plays in shaping these outcomes, including how work and breastfeeding practices interact in the face of extreme weather to influence child health. Finally, I will discuss likely future implications for child growth and nutrition of continued increasing extreme weather events for Shodagor communities, in Bangladesh, and across the Global South.
https://kathrinestarkweather.com/
Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Amy Non, Dept of Anthropology, UCSD. Title: Novel markers of stress in early life: sex ratios, preterm births, and milk miRNAs. Via Zoom
2026-02-09 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract:
The theory of developmental origins of health and disease predicts pregnancy and infancy to be sensitive early periods of development with long term impacts on trajectories of growth and health across the life course. At a population level, preterm births have been linked to stressful group events, including natural disasters and sociopolitical stressors. Similarly, sex ratios (male births/total live births) have been altered among mammals birthing in adverse environments, a theory termed the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis. Shifting sex ratios may be an adaptive strategy that also applies to humans, which have shown to favor female offspring among populations birthing in poor conditions, given their more reliable chance of reproductive success. After birth, lactation is another sensitive period during which mothers transmit nutrition, hormones, and other bioactive molecules to their offspring, which may help shape strategies for growth and development. MicroRNAs are small noncoding segments of RNA that regulate gene expression and are highly abundant in milk. In this talk, I will discuss research from my lab group on the influence of the early COVID-19 pandemic, a nationwide stressor, on patterns of preterm births in the U.S. and sex ratios in the U.S. and Ireland. Additionally, I will discuss the value of studying exosomal microRNAs in human milk as a novel biomarker of stress and mood, potentially transmitting signals to offspring about maternal environmental conditions.
Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Greg Grether, EEB, UCLA, Title: Behavioral interference between species
2026-02-23 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Aggression and reproductive interference are common forms of behavioral interference between closely related species. These interactions often arise as incidental byproducts of everyday activities such as defending resources or competing for mates. Yet, although they resemble familiar within-species behaviors, their ecological and evolutionary consequences can be quite different when they occur between species. Behavioral interference can strongly influence whether species are able to coexist at all, and if they do, how they subsequently evolve in response to one another through natural selection. Such interactions were likely part of human evolutionary history and may even help explain why Homo sapiens is the sole surviving species in the genus Homo. In this talk, however, I focus on what we know with greater certainty about behavioral interference in other animals. Why does behavioral interference persist if it is costly at the population level? How does it influence species’ geographic ranges, the spread of invasive species, or the persistence of endangered species? What evidence do we have that behavioral interference drives evolutionary change? Drawing on examples from across the literature as well as from my own research, I will address these questions and strive to offer a balanced perspective on the causes and consequences of behavioral interference.
Zoom link for those attending remotely:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Olympia Campbell, Institute for Advanced Studies, Toulouse. Title: Cousin marriage, women’s welfare, and accelerated family formation
2026-03-09 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract:Cousin marriage, practised by over 10% of the world’s population, restructures kinship networks by overlapping blood and affinal ties. Theory makes competing predictions about how this affects women. “Protection” accounts argue that consanguinity aligns spouses’ interests and increases kin oversight, reducing coercion. “Constraint” accounts emphasise that dense kin involvement can prioritise family cohesion over women’s autonomy, suppressing help-seeking. Using demographic data from ~40,000 women across Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and Turkey, I show that cousin-married women report significantly lower levels of both physical intimate partner violence and coercive control than women in non-consanguineous unions.
In the second half, I examine whether cousin marriage accelerates family formation by reducing search and transaction costs. Marrying kin may eliminate protracted spouse searches and simplify negotiations, lowering age at first marriage. Using demographic data from the same four countries I test whether cousin marriage reduces age at marriage and increases completed fertility. A fertility advantage could offset genetic costs of inbreeding, potentially explaining the evolutionary persistence of consanguineous marriage.

Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Joan Silk, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, ASU. Title: New Perspectives on Male Parenting in Primates: Insights from Baboons
2026-03-30 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract:
In virtually all human societies, men and women form stable pair bonds, male reproductive skew is low, children receive considerable care and resources from both of their parents, and nuclear families are part of a set progressively larger social units that commonly include kin, affines, and unrelated members of the same ethnic group. Understanding of the evolution of this suite of traits is problematic because the most recent common ancestor of humans and the genus Pan probably did not share any of these features. However, a growing body of data from studies of living primates suggest that there may be multiple pathways to the evolution of male paternal care and extended breeding bonds, and provide a broader foundation for thinking about the evolution of human reproductive strategies. My research group has been exploring the trade-offs between mating and parenting effort for male olive baboons, a species with relatively high male reproductive skew and a polygynadrous mating system. Our data provide evidence of behavioural trade-offs between mating effort and parenting effort for males, changes in allocation of mating and parenting effort across the life course, and the existence of enduring reproductive bonds. I will describe these data and their implications for understanding the evolution of the unusual set of traits that characterize our own species.
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Dr. Eva Jablonka, Professor emerita, Tel-Aviv University: The Evolution of Animal Consciousness. Hosted by the UCLA Dept. of Philosophy
2026-04-10 16:00 - 18:00 | Royce Hall, 10745 Dickson Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Abstract:
The study of animal consciousness is becoming a respectable domain of study, which has implications for neuroscience, evolutionary biology and ethics. In this lecture I discuss the theoretical commitments of different naturalistic approaches to animal consciousness and point to markers of consciousness. I suggest that an approach focusing on cognitive capacities in humans that were shown by contrastive experiments (comparing conscious and non-conscious perception) to require consciousness is a good starting point for the search for consciousness markers in non-human animals. However, the choice of contrastive experiments that are deemed relevant for animals is theory-dependent. I present an evolutionary approach suggesting that consciousness is the outcome of the evolution of a complex form of associative learning (unlimited associative learning, UAL), and that the cognitive architecture that evolved to enable this kind of learning is the architecture of minimal consciousness. This theory provides a framework for observational and experimental studies in animals and has many testable predictions. I end by discussing the implications of the evolutionary approach for consciousness studies and for research in evolutionary biology.

Royce Hall 306
RSVP necessary:

“The Evolution of Animal Consciousness” – Eva Jablonka, Prof. Emeritus, Tel Aviv University

Eva Jablonka, Prof. Emerita, Tel Aviv Univ.: Evolutionary Theory and the Unification of Life Sciences in the 21st Century. Frank Marlowe Memorial lecture.
2026-04-13 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract: I argue that the changes in our current view of evolutionary theory are leading to a new unification of life-sciences, which is occurring, seemingly paradoxically, within the context of their increased specialization and fracturing. Unlike the modern evolutionary synthesis of the 20th century (the MS) which claimed that selection is the only direction-giving process in evolution, the current synthesis incorporates not only new biological domains but also processes that were excluded by the MS. I consider two aspects of this unification: the first is the synthesis between development and heredity, which involves enrichment of both notions and is leading to important changes in our view of evolution, discussed within the framework of the extended evolutionary synthesis (EES). The second aspect is the study of mental processes stemming from research into the evolutionary origins and effects of consciousness. I argue that these developments enable the construction of a unifying evolutionary framework for the expanding domain of 21st century life sciences, which is becoming based on broader and richer views of heredity, adaptation and cognition.
Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

There will also be an art exhibit and reception by Anna Zeligowska featuring the art from Eva Jablnoka’s books from 5:30-7PM in Dodd 321. Food will be served at that evening event and members of the BEC community are welcome.

Frank Marlowe Memorial Lecturer: Mike Gurven, Anthropology, UCSB. Title: A Natural History of Human Longevity.
2026-04-20 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract:
The evolution of human longevity still remains a curious puzzle. Here I provide some new perspectives on the why and how of longevity over the course of human evolution, relying on the anthropological study of subsistence societies as an imperfect lens for gaining insight. I argue that our evolved human lifespan is about seven decades, and that the multifaceted contributions of middle-to-older aged adults is part of the reason why. I combine ethnographic, demographic and biomedical studies to shed light on the timing and significance of the transition from “asset” to “burden” in late adulthood, with implications for navigating the global Gray Wave of population aging.
Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Morgan Tingley, EEB, UCLA: "To move, or not to move? How species respond to a warming climate"
2026-05-04 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract: When we contemplate how biodiversity is changing, we often focus on the species we have lost entirely. But while we have yet to lose a single bird species to our rapidly changing climate, birds and other creatures are currently adapting and responding in myriad ways. Across the world, species are shifting their geographic distributions, shifting the timing of life history events, and even shifting their body shapes and sizes. Integrating field research and citizen science over decades to centuries, the research presented in this talk demonstrates the complex ways that species are responding to a changing climate, as well as the options that humans have to help species cope with an increasingly dynamic earth system.
Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Dr. Kim Zhu: Multi-Omic Investigations of Convergent Human Adaptations to High-Altitude Hypoxia in the Himalayas and Andes
2026-05-18 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract: A long-standing goal within the field of evolutionary genomics has been to understand how genomic and phenotypic differences between human populations arise. High-altitude environments offer a natural experiment to study this question, as these environments impose a number of selective pressures, the most severe of which is high-altitude hypoxia. Human populations residing across the Andean Altiplano, Tibetan Plateau, and Ethiopian Highlands represent three separate replications of this natural experiment, each displaying a unique suite of high-altitude adaptive phenotypes. This talk explores how multi-omic methods can be leveraged to uncover signatures of natural selection and developmental adaptation that have shaped the adaptive phenotypes displayed among high-altitude residing Andean and Himalayan populations. Ultimately, this work highlights how adaptive processes can act across evolutionary and developmental timescales to shape the shared and distinguishing features observed between human populations.
Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Ashley Mensing, Dept of Anthropology, UCLA. Title: Early life adversity and life history correlates in wild white-faced capuchins: physiological mechanisms and fitness outcomes
2026-06-01 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Abstract:
Organisms that develop under adversity often differ from their peers in stress physiology, behavior, and reproductive timing. Life history frameworks offer a powerful lens for making sense of this variation, proposing that these differences reflect developmental responses calibrated to early environmental conditions. Yet the mechanistic pathway connecting early adversity to physiological changes to behavioral shifts to life history outcomes has rarely been traced empirically within wild populations, leaving core assumptions about how this process unfolds largely untested.
I draw on long-term data from the Lomas Barbudal Monkey Project in Costa Rica to examine whether early adversity in wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus imitator) generates the downstream physiological, behavioral, and life history changes that these frameworks anticipate. I first characterize early environmental harshness and its relationship to stress physiology, then ask whether physiological variation connects to behavioral and life history shifts in the expected directions. By tracing this pathway empirically in a wild primate, this work offers a window into how and whether the predictions embedded in life history approaches hold when tested mechanistically in a system with rich longitudinal data. These findings have implications for how we study developmental plasticity and the promises and limitations of applying life history frameworks to individual-level developmental trajectories.
This talk will be presented via Zoom:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/94308730584?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 943 0873 0584
Passcode: [REDACTED]
