Animal beauty : on the evolution of biological aesthetics / Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard ; illustrated by Suse Grützmacher ; translated by Jonathan Howard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nüsslein-Volhard, C. (Christiane), author.

Contributor:

Grutzmacher, Suse, illustrator.

Howard, Jonathan, 1943- translator.

Standardized Title:

Schönheit der Tiere. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Evolution (Biology).

Nature (Aesthetics).

Sexual selection in animals.

Physical Description:

116 pages ; 19 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2019]

Summary:

Are animals able to appreciate what humans refer to as "beauty"? The term scarcely appears nowadays in a scientific description of living things, but we humans may nonetheless find the colors, patterns, and songs of animals to be beautiful in apparently the same way that we see beauty in works of art. In this book, the author describes how the colors and patterns displayed by animals arise, what they communicate, and how they function in the social life of animals. Watercolor drawings illustrate these amazing instances of animal beauty.

Contents:

Part 1. Evolution and aesthetics. Evolution ; Beauty ; Ornament ; Aesthetics ; Communication ; Pattern recognition

Part 2. The development of colors and patterns. Colors ; Skin ; Making patterns ; Pigment cells ; Zebrafish ; Evolution of beauty.

Notes:

Translated from the German.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780262039949

026203994X

OCLC:

1053169621