Arms races inevitably stall as weapon costs neutralize reproductive benefits

Evidence

No arms race lasts forever. As weapons get bigger they also get dramatically more expensive. Eventually, populations reach a new balance where the now-higher costs neutralize the reproductive benefits. Bigger stops being better, and the arms race stalls. Populations stabilize, hovering at the new weapon size. How big the weapons are at this stalling point depends on where the balance is finally reached; animal weapons under strong sexual selection, for example, may attain astonishing proportions before costs catch up and place the process in check. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 432

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the theoretical end state of arms races — the balancing point where costs cancel benefits.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 432
• XREF: connects to: Arms-race weapon growth makes resource trade-offs drastically impair body functions — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 296; Weapons evolve only when reproductive benefits exceed costs — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 199; Extreme skew in mating success drives arms-race escalation in weaponry (+12 more)

Related

• Balancing selection normally curbs weapon size until some lineages escape into runaway arms races (similarity 0.92)
• Bigger weapons usually fail because their costs outweigh their benefits (similarity 0.90)
• Weapons evolve only when reproductive benefits exceed costs (similarity 0.89)
• When balancing selection fails, bigger weapons win every round and escalate the race. (similarity 0.89)
• Extreme skew in mating success drives arms-race escalation in weaponry (similarity 0.89)
• Natural selection usually favors modest weapon size because cost offsets benefit (similarity 0.89)
• Arms-race weapon growth makes resource trade-offs drastically impair body functions (similarity 0.88)
• Weapon escalation ends when costs outweigh benefits and cheaters invade (similarity 0.88)
• Specific conditions are required before weapons escalate into an arms race (similarity 0.87)
• Weapon size in animal species is under stabilizing selection, not open-ended directional selection (similarity 0.87)
• Balanced selection keeps most animal weapons modest rather than extreme. (similarity 0.87)
• Specific ecological circumstances must align before weapon arms races begin (similarity 0.87)
• Weapon costliness keeps signals honest by excluding weaker males (similarity 0.87)
• Big weapons only benefit males with the reserves to wield them effectively (similarity 0.86)
• Reproductive success, not survival, drives the largest animal weapons (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Arms-race weapon growth makes resource trade-offs drastically impair body functions #expands (0.80) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 296
• Bigger weapons usually fail because their costs outweigh their benefits #corroborates (0.80)
• Weapons evolve only when reproductive benefits exceed costs #corroborates (0.75) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 199
• Rutting stag health collapses from the cost of weapons and mating #exemplifies (0.70) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 309
• War conditions render accumulated money useless and force starvation survival tactics #exemplifies (0.70) — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 96
• Extreme skew in mating success drives arms-race escalation in weaponry #qualifies (0.65)
• Clumped sparse resources make territorial fighting pay off reproductively #qualifies (0.65)
• Cheating males erode the reproductive payoff of weapons, capping their evolution #complicates (0.60) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 851
• Uniformly distributed resources make territorial weapons uneconomical #qualifies (0.60) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 201
• Balancing selection normally curbs weapon size until some lineages escape into runaway arms races #qualifies (0.55) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 22
• Big weapons only benefit males with the reserves to wield them effectively #qualifies (0.55) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 355
• Weapons shrink when predator pressure falls and armor gets costly. #qualifies (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 56
• Specific ecological circumstances must align before weapon arms races begin #expands (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 137
• Dominant weapons become obsolete when their intended fights never occur #qualifies (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 456
• Symmetrical one-on-one fights are a neglected prerequisite for weapon arms races #expands (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 226