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Why do pheasants have long tails?

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Jez:
Just, you know, one of those things I read. A short essay by Richard Dawkins; http://richarddawkins.net/article,2095,Wha...Richard-Dawkins

Numsgil:
I don't follow the reasoning behind 1 through 3.  I'm not against the idea at all, I just didn't think that the assumptions 1 through 3 are self evident.  Maybe he explains it better in his book, though.

shvarz:
I think the point here was that "it is possible to create a simple mathematical model that would show the advantage of having handicap that can be used for advertisement".  I don't think they propose that things are that simple or that these rules apply to every specie. As he says in the assay:
--- Quote ---Of course Grafen has not shown that animal displays are always Zahavian. But he has shown that the main theoretical objection to the handicap principle was wrong.
--- End quote ---

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