Comments on: Why You Can't Fake A Good Horn

By: The Weekly Flypaper » Biodiversity in Focus Blog

The Weekly Flypaper » Biodiversity in Focus Blog — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 02:13:10 +0000

[...] apparently the most honest animals on the planet. Excellent coverage of a big evolutionary find by Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong and Tom [...]

By: Stefan

Stefan — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:57:33 +0000

It should probably be why you(they) cant fake a good horn yet. It may just be a matter of time(and luck) until one of the beetles discovers cheating like fiddler crabs . (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2008/11/13/you-want-a-piece-of-this-please-please-please-dont-take-a-piece-of-this/)
A bigger more brittle horn would require/drain less resources. On the other hand if you cant grow back a lost brittle horn it may be too much of a gamble …

By: Carnival of Evolution 50: The Teaching Edition « Teaching Biology

Carnival of Evolution 50: The Teaching Edition « Teaching Biology — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:15:18 +0000

[...] Why You Can’t Fake A Good Horn – Carl Zimmer (The Loom) [...]

By: The Scienceblogging Weekly (July 27th, 2012) | Seniors & Boomers News

The Scienceblogging Weekly (July 27th, 2012) | Seniors & Boomers News — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:49:27 +0000

[...] Why You Can t Fake A Good Horn by Carl Zimmer [...]

By: The Scienceblogging Weekly (July 27th, 2012) | Stock Market News - Business & Tech News

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 02:42:51 +0000

[...] Why You Can t Fake A Good Horn by Carl Zimmer [...]

By: Stan Shaw

Stan Shaw — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 06:09:03 +0000

Very interesting and informative article. Thank-you.

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 16:16:40 +0000

GAC, I think you hit on it. It isn’t that if they are unrelated to fitness females might start ignoring them, if they are unrelated to fitness (or if they co-vary inversely with fitness), females that don’t ignore them (or don’t reject them) will have fewer successful descendants.

By: Chris Caudle

Chris Caudle — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:21:40 +0000

In case it wasn’t clear, that previous comment was a response to the GAC comment about evolutionary basis, and you can read “wouldn’t be a good idea” as “would not confer beneficial reproductive fitness advantages.”

By: Chris Caudle

Chris Caudle — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:20:14 +0000

Also note this from earlier in the article:
“Often, male beetles will size each other up and not even bother challenging a beetle with a giant horn”
Growing a giant horn will take resources from the rest of the body, so if you spend resources growing a giant horn at the expense of overall health, even if that misallocation of resources doesn’t kill you outright, then other healthier males might catch on and not back down just because you have a big horn, and give you a good thrashing. It would be a bad idea in the same way that swaggering around a boxing gym looking for a fight wouldn’t be a good idea if you couldn’t actually back up your swagger with a tough right hook.

By: GAC

GAC — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 12:14:01 +0000

Curious. If this is found to occur in other species as well, I wonder what the evolutionary basis might be. Perhaps sexual ornaments are only advantageous if they actually are related to fitness? After all, females might start ignoring them if there are a lot of fakes.