The paradigmatic power of sexual selection
Nearly a decade ago, Darwin’s thinking on sexual selection was considered by numerous scientists to be overdue for revision. At the 169th annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers took “dead aim at one of Charles Darwin’s pet evolutionary theories – the theory of sexual selection, which says that males should compete among themselves for access to mates, or compete for the favours of choosy females.” Two leading voices were those of Joan Roughgarden (“There are too many exceptions for the theory to hold”) and Patricia Adair Gowaty, who said that the theory may still hold, but researchers have been accepting it without good evidence (“What’s wrong is our failure to test the theory adequately”). Read More ›