The Peacock Tail and Sexual Selection

There were several things that Charlie Darwin did not like. These included God, design, the Cambrian Explosion, and the peacock's tail. His version of evolution postulated that living things are the products of unguided processes and the cruel, inefficient process of natural selection.

He also got the notion of sexual selection, which was essentially that males paraded before females who picked a mate that looked the best. The peacock was supposed to be a prime example of sexual selection, but those tail feathers — the train — are examples of intricate specified complexity.

Peacock, Pexels / Soly Moses

Peacocks are native to Burma, India, and those parts. Want a peacock tail feather? Wait a spell. They shed their train later in the season. Also, even though that massive train looks cumbersome, the peacocks fly quite well if they take a notion. The structure and design of the tail feathers is intricate even under the microscope, and colors are a combination of several factors. Those include pigment, light refraction, and more. Darwin would be very upset that his sexual selection theory is a bust, and the tail complexity indicates the work of the Master Engineer, not evolution. Unfortunately, the faithful proclaim sexual selection as if Charlie was right.

The peacock tail contains spectacular beauty because of the large feathers, bright, iridescent colours and intricate patterns. The colours in the tail feathers are produced by an optical effect called thin-film interference. The eye pattern has a high degree of brightness and precision because the colour-producing mechanisms contain an extremely high level of optimum design. According to the theory of sexual selection, the peacock tail has gradually evolved because the peahen selects beautiful males for mating. However, there is no satisfactory explanation of how the sexual selection cycle can start or why the peahen should prefer beautiful features. In addition, there is irreducible complexity in both the physical structure of the feather and in the beautiful patterns.

Although much of the material is rather technical, you may like to read the rest at "The beauty of the peacock tail and the problems with the theory of sexual selection." Also of interest is "Rejecting Darwinian Sexual Selection."