An evolutionary biologist misrepresents sexual selection in The New York Times « Why Evolution Is True

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/an-evolutionary-biologist-misrepresents-sexual-selection/

While Darwin's "aesthetic" theory can be modified to take into account pre-existing female preferences that are either evolved or the byproduct of some other evolved trait (Ronald Fisher was responsible for this advance), in itself it doesn't explain much. Darwin was correct, though, that female preferences can cause males to evolve traits that hurt the males' survival (as in the elaborate tails of peacocks), so long as the males' loss in "fitness" due to survival costs is more than compensated by their gain in fitness due to females mating more often with males having exaggerated calls, behaviors, or ornaments.


_- Steve