eli5: What advantage does sexual dimorphism provide in nature?
In: Biology
Sexual dimorphism provides, at least in humans, one sex that is adapted to care for the offspring for a long period of time. Being that humans are helpless for most of their childhood and into their teenage years, having one sex that is adapted to put their energy not just into nourishing a fetus, but caring for the young post birth allows for the young to be more successful in a given environment.
For humans in the modern day, sexual dimorphism has less an effect on our survivability, and there are many arguments surrounding the impact of sex upon how one thinks/behaves, ranging from some claiming it having little to no effect on how we operate at all, to others claiming it is extremely influential.
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