Re: gender

["Tony Canning" <tonyc@foe.co.uk>]

On Oct 11,  7:55am, Jonathon Woolf wrote:
> Subject: Re: gender
> Larry Dunn wrote:
> >
> > >From: Darryl <dinoguy@interlog.com>
>
> >
> > I understood that in general male animals tend to be larger than female
> > animals.  How indicative is the other evidence?  I ask because I've read
> > it explained another way.
>
> This is only true in mammals.  For those mammal species that show sexual
> dimorphism, in most cases the male is larger than the female.  In
> reptiles and amphibians, it seems to go the other way: females tend to
> be larger.
>
> -- JSW
>-- End of excerpt from Jonathon Woolf

As I understand it, females tend to be larger except where there is
intraspecific combat between males - there are certainly examples of
this across several vertebrate groups, but as is normally the case
with evolution I'm sure there are exceptions.

Tony Canning