WIRED Staff

Male Chimps Are (Old) Ladies Men

Two decades ago, Newsweek famously reported that women over 40 were more likely to get killed by terrorists than find a man. Years later, the magazine retracted the statement, which was based on sloppy statistics. In other words: Their bad. Still, it’s hard out there for females of a certain age — unless they’re chimps. […]

Two decades ago, Newsweek famously reported that women over 40 were more likely to get killed by terrorists than find a man.

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Years later, the magazine retracted the statement, which was based on sloppy statistics. In other words: Their bad.

Still, it's hard out there for females of a certain age -- unless they're chimps.

According to a new study (press release here), male chimpanzees prefer older females

The findings, in addition to supporting the idea that long-term pairbonding and menopause may contribute to the preference of human malesfor young females, also suggest that this characteristic may be anevolutionarily derived trait that arose in the human lineage sometimeafter the lineages giving rise to humans and chimpanzees diverged.