Females are not smaller than males in most mammal species

1 year ago 138

Life

The thought that antheral mammals are larger than females has persisted for much than a century, but an investigation of assemblage wide and magnitude successful 400 mammal taxon shows it isn’t the norm

By Starre Vartan

6 March 2023

Mother with baby, among others, Lesser Dog-faced Fruit Bat (Cyneropterus brachyotis). Also called Short-nosed oregon Common Fruit Bat. Animals hanging successful the roof. Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore.

Male mammals person agelong been said to beryllium larger than females – a improvement known arsenic intersexual dimorphism – but it turns retired that whitethorn not beryllium the norm. An investigation of the assemblage wide of implicit 400 mammal taxon revealed that lone astir 44 per cent had larger males.

“There has been immense taxonomic bias,” successful what types of mammals person been examined for assemblage size dimorphism, says Kaia Tombak astatine Hunter College successful New York. There has been …

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