Why Female Water Buffalo Have Horns but Impala Do Not?September
17th, 2009 in Biology / Evolution (PhysOrg.com) -- The reason
some female hoofed animals have horns while others do not has
long puzzled evolutionary biologists, even the great Charles
Darwin. But now a survey of 117 bovid species led by Ted
Stankowich, professor at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, suggests an answer: Females that can’t readily hide in
protective cover and those who must defend a feeding territory
are more likely to have horns than those who live in protective
habitat or don’t defend a territory. The idea that horns and
antlers evolved in male animals for fighting over mates and
territories is well established, but until now no study has been
able to come close to explaining every case of female horns in
antelope, gazelles and similar species, says Stankowich, a
former Darwin Postdoctoral Fellow. But that is just what he and
co-author Tim Caro of the University of California Davis have
done. By developing the conspicuousn