ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2018
The hidden cost of sexually selected traits: the metabolic expense of maintaining a sexually selected weapon.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- Flag-waving behavior in matador bugs is an antipredatory strategy.Current zoology · 2026Article
- Insulin-like peptide has antagonistic pleiotropic effects on male combat traits and survival traits in an armed beetle.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Extreme armour in the world's oldest ankylosaur.Nature · 2025Article
- The metabolic costs of meiotic drive.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Loss of Paired Weapons Leads to Larger Testes and a Lighter Load for Dispersal.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Intraspecific body size variation across distributional moments reveals trait filtering processes.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Strongly sexually dimorphic forelegs are not more condition-dependent than less dimorphic traits inEvolutionary ecology · 2023Article
- Palaeopathological evidence for intraspecific combat in ankylosaurid dinosaurs.Biology letters · 2022Article
- The interaction between metabolic rate, habitat choice, and resource use in a polymorphic freshwater species.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Large and exaggerated sexually selected weapons comprise high proportions of metabolically inexpensive exoskeleton.Biology letters · 2022Article
- Dual function and associated costs of a highly exaggerated trait in a cichlid fish.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Leg loss decreases endurance and increases oxygen consumption during locomotion in harvestmen.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2021Article
- Weapon performance drives weapon evolution.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Environment-induced changes in reproductive strategies and their transgenerational effects in the three-spined stickleback.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Cybernetic combatants support the importance of duels in the evolution of extreme weapons.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- The evolution of autotomy in leaf-footed bugs.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2020Article
- The longer the better: evidence that narwhal tusks are sexually selected.Biology letters · 2020Article
- Dynamic phenotypic correlates of social status and mating effort in male and female red junglefowl, Gallus gallus.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- A weapons-testes trade-off in males is amplified in female traits.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Muscle mass drives cost in sexually selected arthropod weapons.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sexually selected weapons are among the most exaggerated traits in nature. Sexual selection theory frequently assumes a high cost of this exaggeration; yet, those costs are rarely measured. We know very little about the energetic resources required to maintain these traits at rest and the difference in energetic costs for the largest individuals relative to the smallest individuals. Knowledge in this area is crucial; resting metabolic rate can account for 30-40% of daily energy expenditure in wild animals. Here, we capitalized on the phenomenon of autotomy to take a unique look at weapon maintenance costs. Using
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.