3 ms·
why the fossil record is mostly males Because it can be, that's why. Population bottleneck is female reproduction. You can impregnate X females with X males, o
by causi 5y ago
why the fossil record is mostly males
Because it can be, that's why. Population bottleneck is female reproduction. You can impregnate X females with X males, or 0.5X males, or 0.25X males. Wiping out males has a much lower effect on the future population of a group than wiping out females, so over time a group that loses a lot of males is better off than a group that loses a lot of females, and has more members to die and become fossils.
- alecst 5y agoWhen has the population of females ever been 4x the population of males?
- paulryanrogers 5y agoPerhaps it has more to do with risk profile and group dynamics?
- cmrdporcupine 5y agoNot even close to 4x but in post-WWII Russia there were 1.21 females for every male.
- unsupp0rted 5y agoAfter war time, this wouldn't be surprising. All the males in a tribe can easily get wiped out in one or two engagements, leaving only females and children. In Russia after WW2 the ratio of female:male was 4:3 Imagine what that ratio would have been after a war in olden times.
- causi 5y agoI'm not saying it has. I'm saying that a small number of males can impregnate a large number of females.
- BurningFrog 5y agoThis can explain why males die younger. It doesn't mean that more males than females die.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoAn animal that makes it to old age to get picked off by whatever predators follow the herd or keel over from disease is going to become food for something else, not a fossil.
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoSuch statistical arguments ignore one important fact: every dinosaur died. All of them. So the difference is not so much whether they died or how important it was. The only pertinent issue is how they died and why that might change the statistics on fossilization.
- yetanother4968 5y agoEvery *non-avian dinosaur died.
- bobbylarrybobby 5y agoMost birds alive today will not be in 20 years.