Ep 136: Sexual Selection

It's about time we put out a new podcast!

In this edition, I chat to Associate Professor Robert Brooks, Director at the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, UNSW about sexual selection.

Charles Darwin described sexual selection as "struggle between the individuals of one sex, generally the males, for the possession of the other sex" and nature abounds with strange examples of where animal features have evolved way past their survival needs - for example, reindeer antlers, peacock plumes and quite possible human vocabulary - humans and other primates survived quite nicely without a wide vocabulary, why do we now possess one?

Rob is a leading world expert in the area, listen in to find out what he had to say.
Listen in to this show here (or press play below):



If you would like to hear more about the science of sex, check out The Beer Drinking Scientists episode Let's talk about sex.

References:
Brooks, R. (1999). The dark side of sexual selection Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 14 (9), 336-337 DOI: 10.1016/S0169-5347(99)01689-4

Brooks, R., Hunt, J., Blows, M., Smith, M., Bussiére, L., & Jennions, M. (2005). EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR MULTIVARIATE STABILIZING SEXUAL SELECTION Evolution, 59 (4), 871-880 DOI: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2005.tb01760.x