Sexual Selection In Human Evolution
Sexual selection, a concept introduced by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, is an element of his theory of natural selection, the process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. However, in general, when considering the forces that produced any specific trait, one must bear in mind pleiotropy, whereby genes have more than one effect. In the words of Richard Dawkins:
- "When you notice a characteristic of an animal and ask what its Darwinian survival value is, you may be asking the wrong question. It could be that the characteristic you have picked out is not the one that matters. It may have "come along for the ride", dragged along in evolution by some other characteristic to which it is pleiotropically linked."
Read more about Sexual Selection In Human Evolution: Basics, Darwin's Hypothesis, Sexual Dimorphism, Culture, Phenotype, Controversies, See Also
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