Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 5:09 AM
I am, as usual, fashionably late to this party. But
Dr Tatiana's sex advice to all creation by Olivia Judson
(2002) will easily be the funniest book you'll ever read on evolutionary biology of sex. So on the odd chance that you are interested in evolution, zoology or biology in general
and you haven't yet read this book, I heartily recommend it. Wouldn't you want to impress friends, family and colleagues with your extensive knowledge on the sex life of, for example, the true
slime mould? Did you know that these critters do not have merely two sexes, but a shocking 500? Imagine the problems finding your one true slime mould love...
I'm a slime mould - Physarum Polycephalum is the name - and I don't see how I'm ever going to marry and have any children. I can only ooze along, so finding partners is difficult. [...] I'm worried I'm going to end up a dreary old mould.
The premise of the book is Dr Tatiana, who, like a tabloid agony aunt, answers questions of organisms who are worried about their sexuality. Despite, or actually thanks to its playful approach, it is an excellent introduction into the evolutionary biology of sex. The problems discussed, range from the war of the sexes, to depravity, to the one question that is on all our minds at some point: are men really necessary? Important concepts in evolutionary biology are introduced matter-of-factly, and it becomes evident how sexual selection plays an important role in evolution. You can be the most well-adapted, fittest individual of your species, that amounts to nothing if you can't get a date.
From psychopathic, fratricidal, phallus-equipped spotted hyena grrrls to happy hermaphrodite sea hare orgies, the wonderful world of evolutionary biology is explored. As one of the reviewers has noted, if god really favours monogamy, only a handful of species can enter the gates of heaven. And no, humans are not among them...
(The book
was available in Dutch but apparently is now out of print)