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It is clear sexual selection can decrease fitness, but there are only few experimental result demonstrating evolutionary suicide and the role of sexual selection in historical extinction events is thus far entirely hypothetical.<ref>https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/239/is-there-any-evidence-that-sexual-selection-may-lead-to-extinction-of-species</ref> | It is clear sexual selection can decrease fitness, but there are only few experimental result demonstrating evolutionary suicide and the role of sexual selection in historical extinction events is thus far entirely hypothetical.<ref>https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/239/is-there-any-evidence-that-sexual-selection-may-lead-to-extinction-of-species</ref> | ||
Theoretic models suggest extinction cannot happen due to sexual selection without sudden environmental changes and as long the ornamented individual bears the cost.<ref>"Sexy to die for? Sexual selection and risk of extinction" by Hanna Kokko and Robert Brooks, Ann. Zool. Fennici 40: 207-219. [[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23736526 Abstract]]</ref> | Theoretic models suggest extinction cannot happen due to sexual selection without sudden environmental changes and as long the ornamented individual bears the cost.<ref>"Sexy to die for? Sexual selection and risk of extinction" by Hanna Kokko and Robert Brooks, Ann. Zool. Fennici 40: 207-219. [[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23736526 Abstract]]</ref> | ||
===Irish Elk=== | |||
Nonetheless, certain species have been theorized to go extinct due to runaway female sexual selection. Irish elk’s extinction was at least in part, to runaway sexual selection. Female Irish elk selected male elk with larger bodies as well as increasingly larger antlers. Some recovered antlers measure nine feet across and weigh over 90 pounds. The extreme nutritious cost to grow such huge antlers, coupled with the burden of such a heavy load, may have been more than the males could handle, particularly as their food source density decreased during environmental changes.<ref>The evolution of sexual strategy in modern humans: an interdisciplinary approach by Collins, Kendra Marie, https://studyres.com/doc/2550939/--california-state-university</ref> In this case, natural selection would have favored males with smaller bodies and antlers needing fewer nutritional resources, however the sexual selection pressures were so strong, and had become so fixed in a positive feedback loop, that it ultimately cost the loss of the entire species.<ref>Moen et al., 1999</ref> | |||
<gallery mode="packed" widths="400" heights="200"> | <gallery mode="packed" widths="400" heights="200"> | ||
File:1920px-Male Peafowl (Peacock) at China National GeneBank, Shenzhen.jpg|A male Peafowl with completely useless plumage | File:1920px-Male Peafowl (Peacock) at China National GeneBank, Shenzhen.jpg|A male Peafowl with completely useless plumage | ||
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File:Irish Elk Side.jpg|Skeleton of the Irish Elk | File:Irish Elk Side.jpg|Skeleton of the Irish Elk | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
== Humans == | == Humans == | ||