ArticleBiology letters2021
It is not always about body size: evidence of Rensch's rule in a male weapon.
Article in Biology letters, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Same-sex sexual behavior in a male-dimorphic arachnid with a resource-defense polygyny: evidence for female mimicry?Die Naturwissenschaften · 2026Article
- Sex on the Beach: Sexual Size Dimorphism Among Aquatic Bugs (Nepomorpha) Inhabiting Different Habitats.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Sharks Violate Rensch's Rule for Sexual Size Dimorphism.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- It is not always about body size: evidence of Rensch's rule in a male weapon.Biology letters · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
In many species, sexual dimorphism increases with body size when males are the larger sex but decreases when females are the larger sex, a macro-evolutionary pattern known as Rensch's rule (RR). Although empirical studies usually focus exclusively on body size, Rensch's original proposal included sexual differences in other traits, such as ornaments and weapons. Here, we used a clade of harvestmen to investigate whether two traits follow RR: body size and length of the fourth pair of legs (legs IV), which are used as weapons in male-male fights. We found that males were slightly smaller than females and body size did not follow RR, whereas legs IV were much longer in males and followed RR. We propose that sexual selection might be stronger on legs IV length than on body size in males, and we discuss the potential role of condition dependence in the emergence of RR.
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