EUSOCIALITY

Eusociality

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A reference companion to the museum — curated topic sections that go deeper on the subjects behind the collection. Every entry, image, and fact is drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

What Is Eusociality

The defining traits of the most social animals — overlapping generations, cooperative brood care, and a reproductive division of labour that turns a colony into a superorganism.

7 entries

Kin Selection & Social Evolution

Why an animal helps others breed — kin selection and Hamilton's rule, inclusive fitness, haplodiploidy, altruism, and the debate over group selection.

5 entries

Life in the Colony

Inside the nest — the ants, bees and termites, their queens, workers and drones, and the signals that run a colony, from the waggle dance to trophallaxis and stigmergy.

11 entries

Social Mammals & Cooperation

Cooperation among mammals — the eusocial mole-rats, sentinel meerkats, cooperative hunters and alloparents that share the work of raising the next generation.

9 entries