The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to SexDarwin, Charles
History
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Human beings -- Origin; Sex differences; Sexual dimorphism (Animals); Sexual selection in animals
When the two sexes follow exactly the same habits of life, and the male
has the sensory or locomotive organs more highly developed than those
of the female, it may be that the perfection of these is indispensable
to the male for finding the female; but in the vast majority of cases,
they serve only to give one male an advantage over another, for with
sufficient time, the less well-endowed males would succeed in pairing
with the females; and judging from the structure of the female, they
would be in all other respects equally well adapted for their ordinary
habits of life. Since in such cases the males have acquired their
present structure, not from being better fitted to survive in the
struggle for existence, but from having gained an advantage over other
males, and from having transmitted this advantage to their male
offspring alone, sexual selection must here have come into action. It
was the importance of this distinction which led me to designate this
form of selection as Sexual Selection. So again, if the chief service
rendered to the male by his prehensile organs is to prevent the escape
of the female before the arrival of other males, or when assaulted by
them, these organs will have been perfected through sexual selection,
that is by the advantage acquired by certain individuals over their
rivals. But in most cases of this kind it is impossible to distinguish
between the effects of natural and sexual selection. Whole chapters
could be filled with details on the differences between the sexes in
their sensory, locomotive, and prehensile organs. As, however, these
structures are not more interesting than others adapted for the
ordinary purposes of life I shall pass them over almost entirely,
giving only a few instances under each class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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