Runaway sexual selection

“Some of the evolutionary consequences of sexual desire and choice in nature are not adaptive,” Prum writes in his recent book. “Some outcomes are truly decadent.”

E inoltre:

"In the past two decades, a cohort of biologists have dedicated themselves to studying how an animal’s “sensory bias” — its ecological niche and its particular way of experiencing the world — sculpts its appearance, behavior and desires. Like Prum, they don’t think beauty has to be adaptive. But where Prum celebrates caprice, they seek causality."

Poi:

“Some people think female preferences just somehow emerge,” Cummings says, “but what has been overlooked is that in many cases, it’s a result of environmental constraints. It’s not always random.”

Per ultimo, “Beauty is something that arises from a host of different mechanisms,” says Gil Rosenthal [...]“It’s an incredibly multilayered process.”

L'evoluzione è un meccanismo davvero molto complesso. Bello questo long-read, che inizia con la storia del bowerbird:

"When males of most bowerbird species are ready to begin courting, they set about building the structure for which they are named: an assemblage of twigs shaped into a spire, corridor or hut. They decorate their bowers with scores of colorful objects, like flowers, berries, snail shells or, if they are near an urban area, bottle caps and plastic cutlery. Some bowerbirds even arrange the items in their collection from smallest to largest, forming a walkway that makes themselves and their trinkets all the more striking to a female — an optical illusion known as forced perspective that humans did not perfect until the 15th century."

Come non riconoscersi.

How Beauty Is Making Scientists Rethink Evolution, di Ferris Jabr, The New York Times, 9 gennaio 2019.