Richard Prum
| Richard Prum | |
|---|---|
| File:RICHARD PRUM 7.JPG | |
| Born | c. 1961 |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Fields | Evolutionary biology, ornithology |
| Institutions | Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Thesis | (1989) |
| Known for | Evolution of feathers |
Richard O. Prum is William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University.[1]
Life and work
Prum describes himself as "an evolutionary ornithologist with broad interests in diverse topics," including phylogenetics, behavior, feathers, structural coloration, evolution and development, sexual selection, and historical biogeography.[1]
Prum holds that birds are the living descendants of theropod dinosaurs, a previously highly disputed finding that has increasingly gained broad acceptance in the ornithological and evolutionary biology scientific communities.[2][3]
Prum took his bachelor's degree at Harvard in 1982, and received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Michigan.
Reception
In his book Survival of the Beautiful, David Rothenberg reflects on Prum's analysis of sexual selection in birds, considering whether female birds are exercising an aesthetic sense when they choose a mate. In a chapter titled "It could be anything", Rothenburg argues Prum's position, that the females' aesthetic choice is essentially arbitrary and decoupled from natural selection: anything the females begin to choose becomes what the males must have if they are to have any offspring.[4] The aesthetic aspect of sexual selection has been debated since the start of Darwinism in the nineteenth century. Prum is following Edward Bagnall Poulton, who was roundly criticised by Alfred Russel Wallace for asserting "female preferences based on aesthetic considerations".[5] In Rothenberg's words, Wallace "had no place for Darwin's love of beauty, caprice, and feminine whim".[6] Prum on the other hand considers art and male sexual display to be "coevolution of the work and its appreciation".[7]
Awards
Works
From 1985 onwards, Prum has authored research papers including:[8]
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=0AGTffepPccC&pg=PA128&dq=Richard+Prum&cd=8#v=onepage&q=Richard%20Prum&f=false
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.See also BNet version
- ↑ Rothenberg, 2011. pp 74–101.
- ↑ Wallace, Alfred Russel. Nature, 24 July 1890. pp 289–291.
- ↑ Rothenberg, 2011. p 36.
- ↑ Rothenberg, 2011. p 101.
- ↑ Lists of Prum's published works
Bibliography
- Rothenberg, David. Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science and Evolution. Bloomsbury, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4088-2882-3
