NEWS

Histoire Naturelle du Plaisir Amoureux
éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, Juin 2021.

Even today, animal sexuality remains an enigma.

Why is it accompanied by such uncertainties? Does it only aim to ensure efficient reproduction? And what does pleasure have to do with it?

And yet, 95% of animal species think of nothing else, and even the fly enjoys...

Following the thread of evolution, Thierry Lodé tells us in this new book about the bliss of the octopus, the ecstasy of the sparrow and the voluptuousness of the capuchin. We discover that dolphins, parakeets and squirrels are equally adept at untimely masturbation. We learn that the tapir and the duck have the longest organs, but that the vagina and the clitoris of the females do their best to stay in the playground of the lovers. Here birds lose their penises, there gorillas engage in lesbian embraces...

What if sexual pleasure was much more than a simple product of evolution, if it was the driving force behind it, contributing, in fact, to the establishment of original interrelationships and animal biodiversity?

Pourquoi les animaux trichent et se trompent
Les infidélités de l'évolution
éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, Sept 2013.

Why animals cheat and deceive? infidelities in evolution

We often imagine that living beings focused on reproductive care, fearless adventure of a life committed to this one very serious obsession “to allow genes to a sassy offspring”. But animals do not quite tell the story. From octopus to parrots, from amoeba to colobus, evolution never seems to retain the best ... What happened since Darwin? Biological evolution may be the only logical explanation for the incredible biodiversity that accompanies us on this earth. No creation. Despite this extreme emptiness, life has no purpose, no goal, not even to distribute or leave a chimeric gene eternity. By relying on my theory of libertine bubbles, I have developed since 2005 a new clearly materialist approach of evolutionary history.
And if sex was what brought unexpected detours, promotes unexpected encounters and even hybrid relations? And if, in nature, each other just needed? And if, instead of the linear image, it was just that, the dynamics of life?
All recent discoveries demonstrate that it appears definitely a need for new perspectives.
And it is scientifically exciting.

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La biodiversité Amoureuse, Sexe & Evolution
éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, March 2011.

Decidedly, ducks abuse. While most birds do not have sexual organs, one duck has a phallus over 40cm. As for the oversized nose of proboscis monkey or tiger stripes, it must be that it means something!

The ways of evolution are developed through a wild eroticism, from the earliest prebiotic “libertine” bubbles to the perfume of polecats and to the whale songs.

However, an incredible oblivion traverses the evolutionary theory: the sex was forgotten. But do you know that biologists had not seen an elephant? What about if evolution was not a race for the best? If genes do not explain the entire body? If animals and humans have shared their strategies for love?

By introducing sexuality at the heart of evolutionary interactions, it is possible to reveal that sex is the subject of the story. Even more, because the lesson of siphonophores showed that the evolution of organs has been built as Russian dolls.

This book revisits the scientific contribution of the various protagonists of neo-Darwinism to the most recent scientific work.

Then, biodiversity discovers love.

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- Amours animales
éditions Mango-Fleurus
Publication in June 2010
 

 

[The War of the Sexes in the Animal Kingdom]
[Odile Jacob, coll. “Science,” 2006, 368 p., 23.50 ¤, ISBN: 978-2-7381-1901-8.]

Prefaced by Patricia GOWATY Professor of Ecology
 

 Opposition between the sexes is not a uniquely human phenomenon. Even for animals the sexes disagree. Thierry Lodé, a professor of evolutionary ecology in Angers, describes with relish the ferocious strategies and amorous peculiarities which make the human species seem almost sensible. With frogs, several suitors pile onto the female managing embraces worthy of the Kama Sutra. Less well known is the isolation of the polecat, the jealousy of the toad, the monogamy of the penguin, the harem of the elephant seal . . . Male dolphins gather together to harass females, ending in forced couplings. As for the fruit fly, they combine toxic substances into their ejaculations which prevent females from pairing up again. Why is there so much violence? And then there is homosexuality which, a priori at least, is totally fruitless.

And yet nearly 450 species practice it, sometimes for lack of partners, sometimes as a strategy, but most often as a deliberate choice. If homosexuality weakens reproducibility, why does it persist? This was for a long time a taboo subject because  it touches the limits of Darwinian theory. For a long time it was thought that natural selection favored the reproduction of animals with better genes. Now we find there are no norms: evolution favors the variation of sexual behavior. Those who succeed are not the best, they are the most blustering, the most opportunistic, the most violent. In addition, all sexual behaviors are essential for biodiversity. The lesson is clear: there are no best genes. Adaptive dynamics are created by conflict. Amorous biodiversity appears to be one of the fundamental principles of life’s adventure !




Publication in 2006

Collection Hors collection -170 x 240 mm - 288 pages – 2001
EAN13 : 9782100057399
Isbn 2 10 005739 1

From the extravagant sexuality of bonobos to the monogamy of Albatross, and to unisexuality of lizards, the diversity of reproduction mode built an adaptive trade-off face to environmental constraints. Supported by more than 600 references, this book analyzed numerous theories dealing with sexual selection

  
Publication in  2001
 

éditions Ellipses
Isbn 2 7298 4828 2

Publication in 1998