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walkthewalk44 t1_j4w15lj wrote

Reply to comment by chazwomaq in Biologically speaking, what makes men typically stronger than women? by Erratic_Noman

How does competition create sexual dimorphism?

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chazwomaq t1_j4w6v81 wrote

Where one sex (usually males) competes physically for the other sex, there is selection pressure for large size, musculature, weaponry like antlers and horns, territoriality, and aggression. The winners of these contests reap huge rewards in terms of mating (Bateman's principle), which is why sexual dimorphism is associated with polygyny. In monogamous species, there is much less incentive to invest energy into intrasexual competition.

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walkthewalk44 t1_j4w9saf wrote

Thanks for the reply. Also I've been looking for an answer to my question and haven't found anything on it. Do you happen to know what would create the attraction for sexual dimorphic features such as fat deposition in females? I understand that they survived better in the past but how does actual attraction come into play?

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chazwomaq t1_j5605rv wrote

You might want to look in Fisherian runaway selection and Zahavian honest signalling. Both are explanations for the evolution of preferences for sexually selected traits, but would take a while to write out here. Wikipedia is good.

Such traits don't need to offer a survival advantage to evolve. In fact, many examples probably offer a survival disadvantage.

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