num_pages: 504
description: The "ant" and the "peacock" stand for two puzzles in Darwinism--altruism and sexual selection. How can natural selection favor those, such as the worker ant, that renounce tooth and claw in favor of the public-spirited ways of the commune? And how can "peacocks"--flamboyant, ornamental and apparently useless--be tolerated by the grimly economical Darwinian reaper? Helena Cronin has a deep understanding of today's answers to these riddles and their roots in the nineteenth century; the analysis is new and exciting and the explanations lucid and compelling.
language: English
title: The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today
titlecomplete: The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today
genres: Biology, Science, Science Nature, Genetics, Natural History, Psychology, Nonfiction, Evolution
ratings_count: 78
publisher: Cambridge University Press