You may think that cheating is a particularly human trait, but nature is rife with all manner of flora and fauna pulling the proverbial wool over each others eyes. It is the subject of a new book by Lixing Sun, a distinguished research professor in behavior and evolution at Central Washington University.
In The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars he explores how cheating evolved in the animal kingdom and why this dishonesty between species gave rise to the incredible diversity of life on the planet. Below is an extract from the book, where the author shows why even Charles Darwin may have overlooked the important art of deception in natural selection.
