The evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals Gómez, José María González Megías, Adela Verdú, Miguel Same-sex sexual behaviour has attracted the attention of many scientists working in disparate areas, from sociology and psychology to behavioural and evolutionary biology. Since it does not contribute directly to reproduction, same-sex sexual behaviour is considered an evolutionary conundrum. Here, using phylogenetic analyses, we explore the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour inmammals. According to currently available data, this behaviour is not randomly distributed across mammal lineages, but tends to be particularly prevalent in some clades, especially primates. Ancestral reconstruction suggests that same-sex sexual behaviour may have evolvedmultiple times,with its appearance being a recent phenomenon in most mammalian lineages. Our phylogenetically informed analyses testing for associations between same-sex sexual behaviour and other species characteristics suggest that it may play an adaptive role in maintaining social relationships and mitigating conflict. 2024-05-09T06:56:42Z 2024-05-09T06:56:42Z 2023-10-03 journal article Gómez, J.M., Gónzalez-Megías, A. & Verdú, M. The evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals. Nat Commun 14, 5719 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41290-x https://hdl.handle.net/10481/91556 10.1038/s41467-023-41290-x eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional Springer Nature