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When it comes to sexual behaviour, the animal kingdom is a broad church.
說到性行為，動物王國是一個廣教派。
Its members indulge in a wide variety of activities, including with creatures of the same sex.
其成員沉迷于各種各樣的活動，包括與同性動物。
Flying foxes gather in all-male clusters to lick each other's erect penises.
雄性飛狐聚集在一起相互舔對方勃起的陰莖。
Male Humboldt squid have been found with sperm-containing sacs implanted in and around their sexual organs in similar quantities to female squid.
人們發現雄性洪堡魷魚的性器官內和周圍都植入了含有精子的囊，其數量與雌性魷魚相當。
Female snow macaques often pair off to form temporary sexual relationships that includes mounting and pelvic thrusting.
雌性雪猴經常結對形成臨時的性關系，包括騎乘和骨盆抽動。
Same-sex sexual behaviour has been recorded in some 1,500 animal species.
記錄中已有1500種動物有同性性行為。
The mainstream explanations in evolutionary biology for these behaviours are many and varied.
進化生物學對這些行為的主流解釋是多種多樣的。
Yet they all contain a common assumption: that sexual behaviours involving members of the same sex are a paradox that does indeed need explaining.
但它們中都有一種共同的假設：同性性行為是一個確實需要解釋的悖論。
Reproduction requires mating with a creature of the opposite sex, so why does same-sex mating happen at all?
繁殖需要和異性交配，那么為什么會出現同性伴侶呢？
A paper just published in Nature Ecology and Evolution offers a different approach.
剛剛發表于《Nature Ecology and Evolution 》的一篇論文提供一種不同的方法。
Instead of regarding same-sex behaviour as an evolutionary oddity emerging from a normal baseline of different-sex behaviour,
作者們并沒有將同性行為看做是一種與異性行為正常基線相反的、進化中的反常現象，
the authors suggest that it has been a norm since the first animals came into being.
而是認為這是自第一只動物出現以來的一種常態。
The common ancestor of all animals alive today, humans included, did not, they posit,
他們假設，今天所有動物的共同祖先，包括人類，
have the biological equipment needed to discern the sex of others of its species.
沒有必要的生物設備來辨別其他物種的性別。
Rather, it would have exhibited indiscriminate sexual behaviour—and this would have been good enough to transmit its genes to the next generation.
相反，它會顯示出任意的性行—并且這將足以把它的基因傳給下一代。
The group of young researchers from institutions across America who wrote the paper, led by Julia Monk, a graduate student at Yale,
來自美國各機構的年輕研究員組成團隊寫了一篇論文，該論文由耶魯大學研究生Julia Monk領頭，
argue that conventional models of sexual behaviour's evolution take two things for granted that they should not.
他們認為傳統的性行為進化模型將兩件事看成是理所當然的，但其實并不應該如此。
The first is that the cost of same-sex behaviour is high because energy and time spent engaged in it do not contribute to reproductive success.
第一件事是，同性行為成本更高，因為花在這上邊的精力和時間無助于成功的繁殖。
If that were true it would indeed mean that maintenance of same-sex behaviour over the generations
如果這是真的，那么這確實意味著同性行為在幾代人之間得以維持
requires some exotic explanation whereby such activity confers benefits that outweigh the disadvantage.
是需要一些奇特的解釋，這種行為利大于弊。
The second assumption is that same-sex activity evolved separately in every species that exhibits it,
第二個假設是，同性性行為在每一個物種中都是獨立進化的，
from an ancestral population that engaged exclusively in different-sex behaviour.
從一個只專注異性性行為的祖先群體中演變而來。
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