Podcast / Blog Response to Nov. 12th

 Something I found intriguing and wondered more about is Sexual Dimorphism. I understand, and as was stated in the podcast, that sexual dimorphism is the amount of variation between the male and female of the same species such as the variation of a male deer (buck) having a set of antlers while the female deer (doe) does not have a set of antlers. I also understand that sexual dimorphism is a result of sexual selection choosing for these traits but I am curious why traits that decrease fitness in terms of safety (like that in a peacock) were sexually chosen for. Sexual selection is all based on choosing a mate that is or appears to be, the fittest so why would female peacocks continually select for a trait that would consequently decrease the fitness of their offspring?

The sexy son's hypothesis is what I found the most interesting because it is such a crazy idea that yet somehow makes so much sense no matter how weird it sounds. The sexy son's hypothesis is the idea that female animals choose a male mate with the most fitness because it will allow her to have offspring with very high reproductive success. I find it so fascinating because a mother's love has got to be the strongest kind of love in all of nature (excluding weirdo animals where the mother will eat her babies) and I look at the sexy son's hypothesis as a way that the potential mother has already begun looking out for her babies before they're even conceived.