The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. IDarwin, Charles
Science
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. I
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 more highly developed sense or locomotive organs than the female, it
may be that these in their perfected state are 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 the less
well-endowed males, if time were allowed them, would succeed in pairing
with the females; and they would in all other respects, judging from the
structure of the female, be equally well adapted for their ordinary
habits of life. In such cases sexual selection must have come into
action, for 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. 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 males over their rivals. But in most cases it is
scarcely possible to distinguish between the effects of natural and
sexual selection. Whole chapters could easily 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 almost pass them over, giving only a few instances under each
class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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