Sexual Selection and the Origins of Human Mating Systems

Comparative analyses of the anatomy, reproductive physiology, and behaviour of extant primates and other mammals can offer important insights into the origins of human sexual behaviour, allowing us to reconstruct the origins of human mating systems, the evolution of sexual attractiveness,patterns of mate choice, and copulatory behaviour. Sexual Selection and the Origins of Human Mating Systems provides a modern synthesis of research on the evolution of human mating systems, bringing together work on reproductive physiology, behavioural biology, anthropology, primatology, palaeontology, evolutionary psychology, and sexologicalresearch. The approach taken is genuinely cross-disciplinary in scope, and provides a fascinating account of the effects of sexual selection upon human evolution in the light of the latest advances in the field.

Alan Dixson was educated in England at the University of Nottingham, where he obtained a BSc in Zoology (1970) and at the University of Birmingham Medical School, where he was awarded a PhD (1973) and a DSc in Biological Sciences (1993). His research has involved comparative studies of reproductive biology and the evolution of sexuality in primates and in other mammals. He has held posts at the Zoological Society of London (1976-1983), Medical Research Council UK (1983-1999), International Medical Research Centre in Gabon (1989-1992), Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge (1993-1998) and was Director of Conservation and Science at the Zoological Society of San Diego in the USA (1999- 2005). He is currently a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand. Alan Dixson has authored, or co-authored, more than 140 papers and books.