SA63 Keynote Lecture 2 | 2020 ($10 w/o paid registration)

 “The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World – and Us.”

Sponsored by Friends of the Arcata Marsh

Richard is an evolutionary ornithologist with broad interests in avian biology. He provides a wonderful voyage showing how Darwin’s theory of natural selection only partially explained the diversity of birds we see today. His second theory in “The Descent of Man” involved what he termed sexual selection. This, as recast and researched by Dr. Prum in the last few years, goes a long way to explaining this diversity with entertaining and scintillating insights into animal, and especially our own human, behavior, both sexual and social.

His book was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017. He says his interests have involved: “… research on diverse topics, including avian phylogenetics, behavioral evolution, feather evolution and development, sexual selection and mate choice, sexual conflict, aesthetic evolution, avian color vision, structural color, carotenoid pigmentation, evolution of avian plumage coloration, historical biogeography, avian mimicry, and the theropod dinosaur origin of birds”.

He is an avid birder, a Professor of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. This talk will provide an enjoyable tour de force through many innovative ideas that will shape how you look at the world around you, and at yourself. Expect an evening well spent!