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Sexual dimorphism: Difference between revisions
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== Causes of sexual dimorphism == | == Causes of sexual dimorphism == | ||
Since males and females are mostly subject to the same survival selection, one would expect them to be very similar. Any dissimilarity must hence have a different origin than survival selection. One diver of sexual dimorphism may be [[sexual selection]] as proposed by Darwin (1858, 1871), i.e. that mate preferences evolved that shaped the phenotype for each sex differently. Sexual selection can result in [[runaway selection]]. | Since males and females are mostly subject to the same survival selection, one would expect them to be very similar. Any dissimilarity must hence have a different origin than survival selection. One diver of sexual dimorphism may be [[sexual selection]] as proposed by Darwin (1858, 1871), i.e. that mate preferences evolved that shaped the phenotype for each sex differently often merely resulting in ornament rather than in functional changes. Sexual selection can result in [[runaway selection]] which can exaggerate the ornament and the mate preferences for it. | ||
Another driver may be differential [[Bateman's principle|parental investment]], i.e. that each sex has different sexual investment in the offspring and thus different mate preferences (e.g. women for a providing male) and is subject to different survival selection (e.g. pregnant women dying of different diseases and at higher rate than men).<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41391479_Strategies_of_Human_Mating</ref> This mainly explains the dimophism in that women are choosy and men compete. | Another driver may be differential [[Bateman's principle|parental investment]], i.e. that each sex has different sexual investment in the offspring and thus different mate preferences (e.g. women for a providing male) and is subject to different survival selection (e.g. pregnant women dying of different diseases and at higher rate than men).<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41391479_Strategies_of_Human_Mating</ref> This mainly explains the dimophism in that women are choosy and men compete. | ||