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CORVALLIS - Marlene Zuk, a biology professor and author from the University of California-Riverside, will give a Horning Lecture at Oregon State University on Thursday, Jan. 30, that examines sex and gender roles among animals - and how that relates to humans.

Her lecture, "Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn About Sex from Animals," begins at 4 p.m. in Memorial Union Room 206. It is free and open to the public.

The lecture title stems from her new book of the same title, published by the University of California Press. In that book, Zuk challenges some long-held assumptions about male and female behavior in humans and animals, and offers some surprising conclusions about dominance, aggressiveness, nurturing and monogamy.

In her research, she looks at animal behavior and asks what connection, if any, it has with humans. Male marmosets, for example, help take care of their offspring. What does this mean for stay-at-home dads? Female birds thought to be monogamous actually have chicks fathered outside the primary breeding pair. Does this relate to human marriage stability?

Zuk has a doctorate from the University of Michigan, where she studied the role of parasites in mate choice. The lecture is part of the 2002-03 Horning Lecture Series at OSU, "Writing About Science and Scientists: Genres of Fact and Fiction." The OSU Department of Zoology co-sponsors the Zuk lecture.