Download The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World - and Us AudioBook Free
A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, uncovering how mating tastes - what Darwin termed "the tastes for the beautiful" - create the outstanding range of ornament in the pet world. In the fantastic halls of knowledge, dogma supports that Darwin's theory of natural selection talks about every branch on the tree of life: which species prosper, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really take into account everything we see in nature? Yale College or university ornithologist Richard Prum - reviving Darwin's own views - thinks not. Deep in exotic jungles surrounding the world are birds with a dizzying array of looks and mating displays: club-winged manakins who sing with the wings, great argus pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers protected in fantastic 3-D spheres, red-capped manakins who moonwalk. In 30 years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous screen traits that appear disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for specific survival. To make clear this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of intimate selection, where the action of choosing a partner for purely cosmetic reasons - for the mere pleasure of computer - is an independent engine motor of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental features from the constraints of adaptive advancement, allowing them to grow a lot more elaborate. It also places the stakes for intimate conflict, where the intimate autonomy of the feminine evolves in response to male intimate control. Most crucially, this platform provides important insights into the evolution of human being sexuality, particularly the ways that female tastes have evolved male body, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Progression of Beauty reveals a unique technological eyesight for how nature's splendor contributes to a far more complete knowledge of advancement and of ourselves.
