Free Republic

Few things seem so silly as a peacock preening its gaudy tail or an elk clanking through the trees with its cumbersome antlers or even a male human displaying his hairy chest, but now we know that these secondary sexual characteristics have evolved because they attract mates, and in the animal kingdom, procreation leads to better odds of survival. These days, the study of evolution has shifted from the question of why such male traits exist to what makes them work and where they came from. In Thursday's edition of the science journal Cell, a team lead by world-renowned University...

It is a blow for Ugly Bettys everywhere. Research shows we value beauty over intelligence. A study of a quiz show - similar to the Weakest Link - revealed those lacking in looks were twice as likely to be eliminated by their fellow contestants, even when they got more questions right, than those easier on the eye.

At first glance, the "sexy son hypothesis" makes perfect sense. According to this pillar of evolutionary biology, a female who chooses a high-quality male will have sons who inherit dad's allure. They, too, will therefore have their pick of females, allowing mom to hit the jackpot: grandmotherhood. But when scientists followed male flycatchers whose dads were real catches (as judged by a forehead patch that is this bird's equivalent of perfect abs), they found no such thing. The sons "did not inherit their father's ... mating status," the Swedish researchers wrote in the February issue of American Naturalist. As a...