PSY354H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Red Queen Hypothesis, Asexual Reproduction, Pilus
Document Summary
Our sexuality evolved from the sex lives of nonhuman creatures that preceded us in the long history of life on. Without the evolutionary perspective, it is too easy to view our own sexuality as the natural order of things, requiring no explanation. Evolution the change in the genetic makeup of living populations over time has led not only to humans, but also to over a million other species that currently inhabit our planet, plus millions more that are now extinct. Humans are not a high point in evolution nor a goal, scientists have discovered nothing special about our position on the evolutionary tree that would support this notion. The sex lives of humans, although remarkably diverse, occupy only a fraction of the range of sexual behaviors that exist or have existed on earth. Individuals within a single species differ slightly from one another. Charles darwin laid out the principles of evolution in the origin of species.
