Sexual size dimorphism of adults proximately results from a combination of sexually dimorphic growth patterns and selection on growing individuals. Yet, most studies of the evolution of dimorphism have focused on correlates of only adult morphologies. Here we examined the ontogeny of sexual size dimorphism in an isolated population of the house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus). Sexes differed in gr...

The processes governing the evolution of sexual dimorphism provided a foundation for sexual selection theory. Two alternative processes, originally proposed by Darwin and Wallace, differ primarily in the timing of events creating the dimorphism. In the process advocated by Darwin, a novel ornament arises in a single sex, with no temporal separation in the origin and sex-limitation of the novel ...

Previous studies have suggested that female facial attractiveness is associated with exaggerated sex-specific facial traits and averageness. Here we applied geometric morphometrics, a method for multivariate statistical analysis of shape, to measure geometric averageness and geometric sexual dimorphism of natural female face profiles. Geometric averageness and geometric sexual dimorphism correl...

Background The development of an anthropometric craniofacial database is a necessary multidisciplinary proposal. Aim The aim of this study was to establish facial anthropometric norms and to investigate into sexual dimorphism in facial variables among Kosovo Albanian adults. Materials and Methods The sample included 204 students of Dental School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pristina....

Five measurements were taken on the ossa coxae of 454 adult primates representing Ceboidea, Cercopithecoidea and Hominoidea. Sex differences in these variables and their relationships to overall body size and sexual dimorphism were tested by means of Student's T-test and regression analysis. The study attempts to clarify the nature of primate pelvic sexual dimorphism, including allometric effec...

Recent colonization of ecologically distinct areas in North America by the house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) was accompanied by strong population divergence in sexual size dimorphism. Here we examined whether this divergence was produced by population differences in local selection pressures acting on each sex. In a long-term study of recently established populations in Alabama, Michigan, and ...

Sexual selection, more so than natural selection, is posited as the major cause of sex differences. Here I show ecological correlations between solar radiation levels and sexual dimorphism in body color of a Hawaiian damselfly. Megalagrion calliphya exhibits sexual monomorphism at high elevations, where both sexes are red in color; sexual dimorphism at low elevations, where females are green; a...

Sexual dimorphism is widespread among carnivorans, and has been an important evolutionary factor in social ecology. However, its presence in sabertoothed felids remains contentious. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of extant Panthera and the sabertoothed felid Smilodon fatalis. S. fatalis has been reported to show little or no sexual dimorphism but to have been intraspecifically variabl...

Most animals show some degree of sexual size dimorphism. However, the degree and direction of dimorphism vary substantially among taxa and even among populations within species. Major progress has been made in the study of sexual size dimorphism in the last decade. Yet detailed studies on the proximate and ultimate causes of sexual size dimorphism in a single animal taxon are few (e.g. Chapters...

Phylogenetic comparative methods were used to analyze the consequences of sexual selection on canine size and canine size dimorphism in primates. Our analyses of previously published body mass and canine size data revealed that the degree of sexual selection is correlated with canine size dimorphism, as well as with canine size in both sexes, in haplorhine but not in strepsirrhine primates. Con...