Fisherian runaway: Difference between revisions

Certain species have been theorized to go extinct partly due to runaway female sexual selection.  The Irish elk’s extinction was at least in part, due 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>