| In his 1859 book Origin of Species, Darwin outlined his
theories of natural and of sexual selection. While natural selection explained the
majority of useful characteristics of a species, Darwin intended his theory of sexual
selection to explain some seemingly non-useful characters that animals had evolved, such
as ornamentation. Darwin argued that ornamentation, like large antlers or brightly colored
feathers evolved because females tended to select the largest, most brightly colored, or
otherwise most ostentatious males for breeding. Within 40 years after its publication,
most biologists denied the reality of sexual selection and it was generally disregarded by
most researchers. However, it remained very popular among natural history museum curators
and the designers of natural history dioramas. In the next set of images and quotes,
examine the manner in which the museum curators and quoted authors use Darwin's theory of
sexual selection to illustrate parallels between animals and humans. |
