Richard Prum

Richard O. Prum is an evolutionary ornithologist with broad interests in avian biology. He is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University, and the Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. His latest book is The Evolution of Beauty.

Everything Videos

The Past

Dinosaurs are alive! Here’s how we know, and why it matters

Feathery dinosaurs are the perfect case study of how scientific revolutions happen.

Life

How extreme beauty might defy survival of the fittest

Is beauty always a proxy for genetic health and fitness? Charles Darwin didn't think so.

The evolution of homosexuality: A new theory

How did human homosexuality evolve?

Does being beautiful mean dying sooner? In nature, it can.

The beautiful courtship rituals of the Club-winged Manakin leave both the male and the female worse off physically, says evolutionary ornithologist Richard O. Prum.

On the origin of beauty: Darwin’s controversial idea about sex

What role does beauty play in evolution? How does Darwin's idea of natural selection apply to how we choose mates? Richard O. Prum, professor of Ornithology at Yale University, explains.

Sexual evolution: What duck mating reveals about relationships, social movements, and politics

Evolution proves that sexual predators are jerks.

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