Smaller-horned males usually lose escalated dung beetle fights

Evidence

During the craziest fights I’d lose track of who was who but, at the end of the scuffle, it was almost always the male with the smaller horns that ended up leaving. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 402

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Tunneling behavior predicts horn evolution in dung beetles — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 713; Tunneling dung beetles guard burrow entrances and evolve horns; rollers do not — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 222; Male combat for mating access frequently causes serious wounds and sometimes death

Related

• Tunneling dung beetles guard burrow entrances and evolve horns; rollers do not (similarity 0.88)
• Tunneling behavior predicts horn evolution in dung beetles (similarity 0.87)
• Tunnel-bound fights give longer horns a decisive performance advantage (similarity 0.85)
• No ball-rolling dung beetle species has evolved horns despite constant fighting (similarity 0.85)
• Dung beetle horns evolved and were lost repeatedly across their history (similarity 0.83)
• Male combat for mating access frequently causes serious wounds and sometimes death (similarity 0.82)
• Beetle horn presence depends on post-arrival behavior, not the dung itself (similarity 0.81)
• Tunnel dwellers fight successive duels and evolve weapons; open-ground species scramble without them. (similarity 0.79)
• Beetle horns can reach 30 percent of male body weight (similarity 0.78)