Contrary to the stereotype according to which males are larger than females, which has long been supported by much of the scientific literature, research conducted on 429 species of mammals shows that in many cases males are the same size as females and sometimes are even larger. little ones.
The results are published in Nature Communications by researchers at Princeton University in the United States.
The size of males and females can vary in different mammal species in relation to the competition for mating and the investment made in the offspring.
It happens for example in lions and baboons, where the males (larger than the females) physically challenge each other to win a mate, as well as in rabbits, where the females (which are larger than the males) generate multiple litters for each mating season .
In the past, research has shown that males and females of the same size are more common than we think, yet the stereotype that males are larger than females in most mammals has spread.
To definitively demonstrate the unfoundedness of this belief, researchers led by Kaia Tombak compared the body mass of males and females of 429 species of free-living mammals.
The data collected indicates that in most cases males are no larger than females and that in many species they have similar dimensions: this applies for example to horses, zebras, lemurs and golden moles.
Significant differences between males and females are present in a small number of species, such as the northern elephant seal (males are three times larger than females) and the tube-nosed bat (with females 1.4 times the size of males ).
According to the authors of the study, the prejudices that have persisted in scientific literature for over a century derive from the fact that for years interest has focused on some more important and iconic species, in which males are larger than females, and on competition male for mating, as in primates and seals.
Proportionately, however, there are more species of rodents and bats which usually have similar dimensions between males and females.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA