Like why aren’t lions total roid monsters if only the strongest male gets to breed the females?
In: 6
There’s a trade-off between muscle gain and other things, like endurance and flexibility. Those things matter a lot too for top predators. So too much muscle means you lose other advantages. And in battles over mates and territory, brute strength might not be sufficient and endurance/flexibility/quick reflexes matter too.
But, “runaway sexual selection” IS absolutely a thing. Think about peacock tails and how ridiculous they are, making the males targets for predation, and the tails make it hard for the males to run/fly. It’s possible for females to select strongly for traits that actually cause eventual problems for male survival. It all comes down to whether or not the individuals can still do well enough to reproduce and pass on their genes, that’s all that matters in the game of Evolution.
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