Savannah's Foundations News

"Survival of the Prettiest." The New York Times [New York City], 18 S4ept. 2017.

    The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/books/review/

    evolution-of-beauty-richard-prum-charles-darwin.html. Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.

Darwin is known for his theory about natural selection, but he also has a lesser known theory called the “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relationship to Sex.” This theory is mainly about organisms choosing mates that aren’t the fittest, but are attractive and aesthetically pleasing. Darwin came up with this theory because he realized that natural selection does not account for the decorations seen in animals, such as the bright faces of monkeys and elaborate feathers of male birds. With this theory, Darwin focused more on the idea of animals going to the prettiest mate rather than the strongest one. Many biologists rejected this theory because it threatened the high status that natural selection had. Scientists did not want to believe that an idea such as choices based on beauty could not drive evolution. Therefore, Darwin’s theory about sexual selection never got nearly as much recognition as his natural selection theory. This source relates to what we learned in class about Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection. The information included builds on what we already learned by giving a second, lesser known theory that is just as important and vital to our understanding of the foundations of history.