ArticleScientific reports2016
The peacock train does not handicap cursorial locomotor performance.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Strong bat predation and weak environmental constraints predict longer moth tails.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Compensatory traits can explain the concave cost function of purely sexual traits.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- Condition-dependent trade-offs maintain honest signalling.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Conspicuous animal signals avoid the cost of predation by being intermittent or novel: confirmation in the wild using hundreds of robotic prey.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- How conspicuous are peacock eyespots and other colorful feathers in the eyes of mammalian predators?PloS one · 2019Article
- The influence of speed and size on avian terrestrial locomotor biomechanics: Predicting locomotion in extinct theropod dinosaurs.PloS one · 2018Article
- Formants provide honest acoustic cues to body size in American alligators.Scientific reports · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Exaggerated traits, like the peacock train, are recognized as classic examples of sexual selection. The evolution of sexual traits is often considered paradoxical as, although they enhance reproductive success, they are widely presumed to hinder movement and survival. Many exaggerated traits represent an additional mechanical load that must be carried by the animal and therefore may influence the metabolic cost of locomotion and constrain locomotor performance. Here we conducted respirometry experiments on peacocks and demonstrate that the exaggerated sexually selected train does not compromise locomotor performance in terms of the metabolic cost of locomotion and its kinematics. Indeed, peacocks with trains had a lower absolute and mass specific metabolic cost of locomotion. Our findings suggest that adaptations that mitigate any costs associated with exaggerated morphology are central in the evolution of sexually selected traits.
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