By Susan Milius
Let’s not get so obsessed with attracting the opposite sex, cautions a hummingbird research team.
Sex appeal may seem like all that makes the world go round, especially to anyone reading recent scientific studies about why males look different from females, remarks Ethan J. Temeles of Amherst (Mass.) College.
Evolutionary pressure to charm and fight for a mate, or sexual selection, is usually easier to test for than natural selection, or the bottom-line pressure for survival, says Temeles. Yet he and his colleagues have found a Caribbean island where they say they can distinguish between the two.