Darwinbots Forum

General => Off Topic => Topic started by: Jez on January 01, 2008, 06:09:12 PM

Title: Why do pheasants have long tails?
Post by: Jez on January 01, 2008, 06:09:12 PM

Just, you know, one of those things I read. A short essay by Richard Dawkins; http://richarddawkins.net/article,2095,Wha...Richard-Dawkins (http://richarddawkins.net/article,2095,What-have-you-changed-your-mind-about-Why,Richard-Dawkins)

Title: Why do pheasants have long tails?
Post by: Numsgil on January 01, 2008, 07:10:14 PM

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.

Title: Why do pheasants have long tails?
Post by: shvarz on January 02, 2008, 01:01:00 PM

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.