Climate-driven food decline may have tipped costly antler growth toward extinction

Evidence

Once the rewards for big weapons plummet, selection starts to favor rapid reductions in weapon size. In theory, if populations with costly weapons fail to lose them fast enough, they may even suffer extinction. We will never know exactly what happened to the majestic Irish elk, for example, but the latest attempts to model costs of antler growth indicate that antlers had reached a very expensive extreme, in which even the most successful males barely managed to recoup their calcium and phosphorus losses before the onset of winter. This, combined with climate reconstructions showing a dramatic decrease in the mineral contents of the plants the elk foraged, raises the possibility that a change in habitat pushed populations into a place where they could no longer afford to pay the price of their extravagant weapons. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 437 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Elk pay a steep price for their weapons. Bulls double their daily energetic needs and leach essential minerals away from other bones in order to grow antlers. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 951 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Extreme antler growth in extinct giant deer carried severe metabolic and mineral costs; Costly weaponry can drive a species extinct when resources degrade. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 437; Growing antlers doubles elk bulls’ daily energetic needs and depletes bone minerals — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 951 (+2 more)

Related

• Extreme antler growth in extinct giant deer carried severe metabolic and mineral costs (similarity 0.94)
• Costly weaponry can drive a species extinct when resources degrade. (similarity 0.92)
• Growing antlers doubles elk bulls’ daily energetic needs and depletes bone minerals (similarity 0.90)
• Growing antlers so deplete male skeletons that they risk starvation after the rut. (similarity 0.89)
• Growing antlers depletes males’ skeletons so severely that bones weaken during the rut (similarity 0.89)
• Moose and caribou strip minerals from their own bones to grow antlers (similarity 0.87)
• Growing antlers can double a moose’s daily basal metabolic rate. (similarity 0.85)
• Irish elk, extinct 11,000 years ago, grew the largest antlers known, spanning twelve feet. (similarity 0.82)
• Biological weapons evolve through the same replication mechanism as their bearers (similarity 0.80)
• Weapons grow late because development prioritizes mandatory survival expenses first (similarity 0.80)
• Excessive military spending can bankrupt a superpower just as oversized antlers bankrupt elk (similarity 0.80)
• Most male ungulates never reproduce because weapon costs are so extreme (similarity 0.80)
• Weapon-bearing male deer pay extreme costs and most never mate (similarity 0.79)
• Weapons evolve only when reproductive benefits exceed costs (similarity 0.79)
• Metamorphosing insects pay weapon growth costs that vertebrates avoid. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Costly weaponry can drive a species extinct when resources degrade. #corroborates (0.85) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 437
• Growing antlers doubles elk bulls’ daily energetic needs and depletes bone minerals #expands (0.70) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 951
• Growing antlers so deplete male skeletons that they risk starvation after the rut. #expands (0.60)
• Growing antlers depletes males’ skeletons so severely that bones weaken during the rut #expands (0.60) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 14