Amazing example of sexual selection: The male pufferfish works 24-hours a day for a week to create this ocean-floor masterpiece. Why does he bother? It's his equivalent of the peacock's tail: an adaptation designed to attract mates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpdlQae5wP8 … HT @41strangepic.twitter.com/L1UaPQ2VFV
One may perhaps be justified in speculating that the male pufferfish's creation, which requires of him both monomaniacal focus and tremendous physical endurance, and in which any deficit of either trait would produce an instantly obvious flaw, compellingly attests to his fitness.
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A key question, I think, is whether the male pufferfish makes any individual choices in the creation of his design. How much do these designs vary, from pufferfish to pufferfish? No two male bowerbirds produce nearly indistinguishable bowers. Perhaps this makes them artists?
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That's a very interesting point, to how extent individuality plays a role. Indeed, even in humans we consider the individual's intention to define what is or isn't art (if something was intended to have artistic value, even if it's a urinol, it'd be considered art).
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