Shared inherited traits push entire clades into parallel weapon arms races

Evidence

Sometimes the characteristics inherited by a group of species (species that trace their ancestry back to a shared common ancestor are called a “clade”) cause many members of the clade to all experience similarly strong selection for large weapons. For example, female African elephants invest impressive amounts of time, energy, and nutrition into their offspring during multiyear bouts of pregnancy and nursing. … This means that the crucial backdrop for intense male-male competition in African elephants, a highly skewed ratio of available males to available females, almost certainly existed in all of the other species in this clade, too. It’s probably no coincidence that so many relatives of elephants embarked on paths of rapid and extreme weapon evolution. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 268 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Shared clade traits like lengthy female investment predispose entire lineages to weapon arms races — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 268

Related

• Shared clade traits like lengthy female investment predispose entire lineages to weapon arms races (similarity 0.96)
• Identical triggers drive extreme weapon evolution across wildly unrelated clades (similarity 0.84)
• The same three ingredients trigger weapon evolution across wildly divergent animal clades (similarity 0.81)
• Human and animal arms races follow parallel evolutionary dynamics (similarity 0.81)
• Specific ecological circumstances must align before weapon arms races begin (similarity 0.80)
• Competition for reproduction drives evolution of nature’s biggest weapons (similarity 0.79)
• Economic logic explains weapon evolution across virtually all animal species (similarity 0.79)
• In nearly all weaponed species, males carry the weapons, not females. (similarity 0.79)
• Specific conditions are required before weapons escalate into an arms race (similarity 0.78)
• The evolutionary drivers of animal weapons also explain human weapon elaboration. (similarity 0.78)
• Animal weapons can evolve rapidly within just seven generations (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Shared clade traits like lengthy female investment predispose entire lineages to weapon arms races #corroborates (0.90) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 268