All articles tagged with #sexual size dimorphism
A new study reveals that early human ancestors like Australopithecus afarensis exhibited extreme size differences between males and females, suggesting intense male competition and diverse social structures, with implications for understanding human evolution.
A new study challenges Charles Darwin's theory of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in mammals, suggesting that there is actually no difference in size between males and females in most species. The research, which examined 429 mammal species, found that while dimorphism occurs in some species like lions and deer, for most species, males and females are the same size. This contradicts the long-held belief that male mammals are generally larger than females. The study's lead scientist, Dr. Kaia Tombak, hopes that this research will help change the entrenched narrative of "larger males" in evolutionary biology.
A new study analyzing over 400 mammalian species challenges the common narrative that male mammals tend to be larger than females, revealing that in 39% of species, both sexes are the same mass, and in 16% of species, females are the heavier sex. The research suggests that biases in scientific literature may have contributed to the conventional wisdom about male size, highlighting the need for more research into the varied mating systems, reproductive strategies, and evolutionary forces shaping mammals.