#evolutionary advantages

[ilovemycatsomuchguys]

Random thought. Does having pointy ears have an evolutionary advantage in any way? especially with fantasy settings weather it’s with demons, vulcans, fae, tiefling, elves or similar creatures. Like why have that adaptation, or evolve specifically to have them. Like would hearing be better? Is there something those pointy ears can sense better? Of course they look cool in a character design and imma use them no matter what but why pointy ears in fantasy. Maybe my brain is still stuck in biology but I wanna know why a species would have pointed ears, like serious or satire reasons, I don’t care, but why 👀 aesthetics probably but I do wonder.

[sciencesideanswers]

I know that this may come across as insensitive, but I’ve always wondered what evolutionary advantages would a longer lifespan entail for females even though their number of eggs (and therefore menopause age) stays the same?

The short answer here is that we don’t really know for sure. What we do know is that it’s a very real phenomenon and occurs across species, as a new study shows. According to the study, across the 101 mammalian species studied, females lived an average of 18.6% longer. Of course, this varied across species (the difference in humans is most often quoted at 8%), but the evidence is there nonetheless. While exact causes are not known, scientists claim that the difference in lifespan is almost certainly biological, not social.

The most commonly hypothesized reasons are sex chromosomes and sex hormones. The first of these is interesting, as females have two X chromosomes, meaning that essentially if one is damaged, there is a backup. This backup chromosome could aid in the longevity seen in females. More compelling is the second argument, that the sex hormones cause the difference. Testosterone has been shown (albeit not totally conclusively) to be damaging to the body, both through reckless and aggressive behavior and causing increased negative biological effects such as storing fat around vital organs. In addition, estrogen tends to have the opposite effect. It is a known antioxidant and helps to repair damaged cells. 

Evolutionarily, this can be tentatively explained as follows: testosterone allows males to be strong when necessary but their longevity is unimportant to the rearing of a child. A female needs to be healthy longer in order to continue to bear children and then to raise those children as necessary. While it is not perfect (or proven), this hypothesis does help explain the patterns we see in most species.

For more reading on what’s covered above, check out: Our World In Data, WHO, TIME Magazine, and the BBC

– Admin Noah

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