What is sexual selection?

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511542459.004

2 - What is sexual selection?

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009

Tim H. Clutton-Brock

Edited by

Peter M. Kappeler and

Carel P. van Schaik

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Tim H. Clutton-Brock: Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Peter M. Kappeler: Affiliation:
Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Göttingen, Germany
Carel P. van Schaik: Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina

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Summary

In the discussion on Sexual Selection in my Descent of Man, no case interested and perplexed me so much as the brightly-coloured hinder ends and adjoining parts of certain monkeys. As these parts are more brightly coloured in one sex than the other, and as they become more brilliant during the season of love, I concluded that the colours had been gained as a sexual attraction. I was well aware that I thus laid myself open to ridicule; though in fact it is not more surprising that a monkey should display his bright-red hinder end than that a peacock should display his magnificent tail.

C. Darwin, Nature, 2 November 1876, p. 18

INTRODUCTION

As this is a book about sexual selection, it is worth starting by considering what it means and how it differs from natural selection. The first section of this chapter briefly reviews the early history of ideas about the evolution of sex differences, while the second examines current definitions of sexual selection and the distinction between natural and sexual selection. The third section synthesises some of the developments in our understanding of the evolution of sex differences since Darwin's day. Finally, the fourth section provides a rough guide to some problems and pitfalls that scientists investigating sexual selection have encountered that are relevant to research on sexual selection in primates.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Sexual Selection in Primates
New and Comparative Perspectives
, pp. 24 - 36

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542459.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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