Females are not smaller than males in most mammal species

1 year ago 67

Life

The idea that male mammals are larger than females has persisted for more than a century, but an analysis of body mass and length in 400 mammal species shows it isn’t the norm

By Starre Vartan

6 March 2023

Mother with baby, among others, Lesser Dog-faced Fruit Bat (Cyneropterus brachyotis). Also called Short-nosed or Common Fruit Bat. Animals hanging in the roof. Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore.

Male mammals have long been said to be larger than females – a phenomenon known as sexual dimorphism – but it turns out that may not be the norm. An analysis of the body mass of over 400 mammal species revealed that only about 44 per cent had larger males.

“There has been huge taxonomic bias,” in what types of mammals have been examined for body size dimorphism, says Kaia Tombak at Hunter College in New York. There has been …

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