Publishers Weekly
12/04/2017
In this appealing book, Ryan, professor of zoology at the University of Texas, investigates the potential for a scientific understanding of what makes some biological traits sexually attractive. He argues that, contrary to what other researchers have postulated, “instead of the brain having to evolve to detect beauty, the brain determines what is beautiful, and all of its constraints and contingencies give rise to a breathtaking diversity of sexual aesthetics throughout the animal kingdom.” In other words, “to understand beauty, we need to understand the brain.” Ryan leads a thoughtful and enlightening tour of brain function across an array of animals, focusing on three senses: sight, sound, and smell. In each case he presents current research, some of which is his own, detailing the nature of experimental design and the excitement of gaining new insights while discussing what remains unknown. Ryan argues that the main driver leading males to develop characteristics that females find beautiful (such as peacock tails, specific frog calls, or surfperch scale patterns) is sensory exploitation, which first evolved to aid in food finding and predator avoidance. By stressing the links between humans and other animals, Ryan also provides glimpses into mate choice in humans. Ryan offers much to enjoy in his provocative book. Illus. (Feb.)
BBC Wildlife
"How Darwin would have loved a book such as this."
From the Publisher
"A delightful and enlightening review of current laboratory and field research into the aesthetic worlds of dozens of species. . . . If there’s a lesson to be learned from Ryan’s survey of sexual aesthetics, it’s that each species perceives the world through a uniquely tuned array of senses with a unique evolutionary history. Put succinctly, romance among the birds and the bees has one thing in common with romance between men and women . . . It’s complicated."—-Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History
Scientific American
"Ryan charms readers with his account of attraction in the animal kingdom, including humans. As he puts it, beauty is in the ‘brain of the beholder.’"
Kirkus Reviews
2017-11-12
Another look at Darwin's once-controversial theory of sexual selection, in which the author argues that sexual beauty is in the brain of the beholder.His study of the sexual behavior of the tungara frog led Ryan (Zoology/Univ. of Texas, Austin), a senior research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, to develop an explanation of how the brain is involved in mating behavior. The calls, whines, and chucks of male frogs are designed, he found, to inform, charm, and seduce the females, but they can also attract hungry predators. The author's work with frogs launched a lifetime interest in discovering how beauty is found not just in animals' calls, but in the scents they give off and the colors they show. He argues that certain domains in the brain help determine what is perceived as beautiful. Thus, understanding the biology of the brain is vital to understanding the biological basis of sexual aesthetics, and those aesthetics drive the evolution of sexual beauty. This is not simple stuff. Ryan works hard to write for general readers, and the narrative is replete with entertaining stories of the sexual marketplace that we and the rest of the animal world inhabit. "Survival is secondary to sex," he writes, "merely an adaptation to keep animals alive so they can have a shot in the sexual marketplace." However, many of Ryan's descriptions of his and other researchers' work demand close reading and some background in scientific vocabulary, including such terms as "major histocompatibility complex" and "asymetrically dominated decoy." Small, uncaptioned, black-and-white illustrations open each chapter, and what does come through clearly is the diversity of beauty—and the diversity of sexual behavior.Despite its appealing title, this is one primarily for the academic market—a good choice for classrooms.
