Human armies and social insects solved the same weapon trade-off by role specialization

Evidence

Division of labor has always been an integral part of human military forces, too, circumventing the same trade-off between portability and size. Light infantry can move far more swiftly than heavier artillery, for example, and the largest guns are cumbersome and difficult to maneuver. Despite attempts to overcome these limitations, such as placing catapults and cannons on wheeled carts or, much later, housing big guns on rail cars and tracked vehicles, armies have always faced limitations due to the unwieldiness of their biggest guns. The solution was to separate the functions of infantry and artillery units, permitting one to specialize for speed; the other for firepower. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 133

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the ant/termite soldier-worker split with human infantry-artillery separation across millennia of military history. — connects to: The evolutionary drivers of animal weapons also explain human weapon elaboration. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 7; Human and animal arms races follow parallel evolutionary dynamics — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 463; Extreme weapons across many insect species stunt eyes, wings, antennae, and testes — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 297 (+5 more)

Related

• Human and animal arms races follow parallel evolutionary dynamics (similarity 0.88)
• Releasing soldiers from other tasks lets weapons evolve to extremes (similarity 0.87)
• The evolutionary drivers of animal weapons also explain human weapon elaboration. (similarity 0.85)
• Human fortifications and artillery evolve via the same arms-race logic as animal weapons (similarity 0.84)
• Weapons in arms races get so big they impair other bodily functions (similarity 0.84)
• Identical circumstances trigger and collapse arms races in animals and humans. (similarity 0.84)
• Weapon evolution is judged by competition among designs, not human survival (similarity 0.83)
• Competition for reproduction drives evolution of nature’s biggest weapons (similarity 0.82)
• Comparisons of animal and human weapons have a long scholarly tradition. (similarity 0.82)
• Naval fleets recreated soldier-worker specialization through capital and escort ships (similarity 0.81)
• Animal weapons can evolve rapidly within just seven generations (similarity 0.81)
• Markets and battlefields select among rifle designs like natural selection acts on weapons (similarity 0.81)
• Arms-race weapon growth makes resource trade-offs drastically impair body functions (similarity 0.81)
• Animal weapons evolved to extremes far beyond practical size (similarity 0.81)
• Fortification-artillery escalation mirrors predator-prey arms races, not rival contests (similarity 0.81)