A waltz over evolutionary timescales: why it’s so hard for animals to invent a new mating dance

By Nathan Butterworth, Associate Research Fellow in Insect Ecology, Deakin University
Keith M. Bayless, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO

“Love makes fools of all of us,” wrote 19th-century novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. A moment spent watching the pigeons at your local park suggests he was right: males with puffed-up, shimmering necks hop, pirouette, coo, and bow to capture the attention of unimpressed females.

But why do male pigeons express themselves through the passion of dance? The concept of sexual selection, first proposed by Charles Darwin, suggests that through…

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