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In a way, the energy required to develop and maintain these feathers may be excessive honest signal. Protein is needed to build them, and the bird needs to create oils to keep them in good shape. They also require constant pruning. So parasites are more easily attached to these microstructures, which would mean that a man should also spend them more energy adorns itself. “Having that time, having those oils and having a pen in the first place can be an honest sign,” Dumbacher says. Basically: I’m as regular as I say in my dating profile, but I don’t even have a parasite. Which, undo.
But why go through all the problems of developing elaborate pen microstructures when males already have pigmentation to point to females? Well, that’s the literal beauty of evolution. “The evolution is pretty noticeable,” Shultz says. “Men will probably find a way to find ways to get around the signal so that they are clearer, more elaborate or more enthusiastic, without necessarily putting in the same cost. So these men will get more friends, be healthier and therefore likely have more descendants. So, by natural selection, that will be the one that will acquire that characteristic. “
In other words, women don’t want weeds. If a brightly colored man is likely to be the healthiest, evolutionarily speaking, he wants to give these genes to her. own sons. If their offspring do not emerge, they do not reproduce, while someone else’s bright children follow their genetic line. It’s a kind of evolutionary arms race. Females want the best males, but males try to play the system. Instead of spending time and energy filling up with more fruit carotenoids, males can “cheat” by using feather microstructures. Shultz and his colleagues call this a “proxy tape” because men develop tricks to stay fit without necessarily being fit.
“There’s this constantly evolving tape of these proxies,” Shultz says. “Men and women are in this war against men while putting in the least resources to make them look their best. Women want to use traits that will be indicative of the underlying quality of men.” A woman cannot ignore her preference for bright men because this would condemn her sons to be attractive.
It is likely that this preference of bright males will begin to develop in stores because they are already looking for bright colors when looking for food: these birds are clues to the presence of sweet fruits. “If the male is bright red and the female is already turning her head to that color, then it will give her an advantage,” Dumbacher says. “Vertebrates develop an aesthetic sense. There are different reasons why women may prefer something. And while there is no high cost to like this, it can only become so because females like it. “
Evolutionary biology calls it “slip right”. Or at least they should.
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