Seminar Two
Evolution of sexuality
A male Resplendant Quetzal looks out of his nest hole, his long tail still pointing in the direction in which he entered the hole.
Photography by Greg and Mary Beth Dimijian
Natural selection is about living long enough to reproduce; sexual selection is about convincing others to mate with you.
Geoffrey Miller
If natural selection is the cake that makes biology understandable, sexual selection is the icing. No one knew better than Darwin, who initially proposed it, that sexual selection is fundamentally different from natural selection. He viewed it as a separate and powerful explanatory principle in biology.
Have you ever seen the most beautiful bird in the world? Many consider the male Resplendent Quetzal of Central America to deserve the title of most beautiful bird. I took these photographs of the Quetzal in the cloud forest of Costa Rica.
Above This splendid male Resplendant Quetzal lives in the cloud forest of Monteverde in Central America.
Below The female Resplendent Quetzal is not as “resplendent” as the male. Her colors are more subdued and her tail is not long and elegant.
Photography by Greg and Mary Beth Dimijian
In Guatemala the Resplendant Quetzal is so admired that the male adorns their currency, with his long tail trailing behind in flight.
NEXT PAGE: Sexual dimorphism
NOTES
Angier, Natalie. “A Conversation With: Author Offers Theory on Gray Matter of Love.” New York Times. 30 May 2000.
Miller, Geoffrey. The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature. Doubleday, 2000. ISBN: 978-0-385-49516-1.
© 2010 A Darwin Study Group
