Grandmothers

Few female mammals live significantly past menopause.  We're glad they do of course, but it's still an interesting question - one that comes up routinely in my evolution class when we're discussing life histories.  It's a trait that humans share with killer whales and pilot whales, and a new paper appearing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B and discussed here at Scientific American delves into what we might have in common with those species.  Good stuff.