The idea of sexual selection, proposed by Charles Darwin, explains how intraspecific differences between individuals of different sexes within the same species formed. The developed “secondary sexual characteristics” often do not carry any functional load and even interfere with survival, but they attract the opposite sex and ensure reproduction (Darwin 325). This happened because sexual selection based on secondary sexual characteristics does not depend on the struggle for survival but influences breeding success.
As a museum object, I propose considering pictures of Pteranodons’ head crests differences according to their sex. This image demonstrates extreme sex dimorphism that hindered species’ survival success. In modern biology, similar situations can be observed when sexual selection creates less viable breeds (Ryan). For example, the brighter coloration of male birds leads to their higher mortality (De Lisle). The proposed museum object shows how acquired secondary sexual characteristics led to the depopulation of a species or its extinction.
The work of Charles Darwin, “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex” is used as the theoretical basis and framework for this work. It lays out the basics of how sexual selection shapes secondary sex characteristics. The article “Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain” clarifies Darwin’s theory and provides up-to-date facts supporting the idea of sexual selection and its impact on the survival and development of species. “The Peak shifts and extinction under sex-specific selection” study provides factual information on the relationship between sexual dimorphism and the downward trend in population decline.
Potential Object Image
| Object Image |  |
| Image Source Citation | Everhart, Mike. “Pteranodons Flying Reptiles of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea – A Photographic Atlas.” Pteranodons, 2014. |
References
Darwin, Charles. 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Volume 1. London: John Murray.
De Lisle, Stephen P. “Peak shifts and extinction under sex-specific selection.” Biology Letters 17, no. 10 (2021): 20210278. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0278
Ryan, Michael J. “Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118, no. 8 (2021): e2008194118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2008194118