Discover Community Create You

Loading publication...

Noodle always counts identifier-free feature events for service operation. With your permission, Google Analytics can also estimate audience and engagement. Search text, publication identifiers, cookies, IP addresses and browser fingerprints are never included in Noodle's first-party event counters.

Privacy details

Article

The longer the better: evidence that narwhal tusks are sexually selected.

Biology letters - 1 Mar 2020

Graham Zackary A, Garde Eva, Heide-Jørgensen Mads Peter, Palaoro Alexandre V

Abstract excerpt

Once thought to be the magical horn of a unicorn, narwhal tusks are one of the most charismatic structures in biology. Despite years of speculation, little is known about the tusk's function, because narwhals spend most of their lives hidden underneath the Arctic ice. Some hypotheses propose that the tusk has sexual functions as a weapon or as a signal. By contrast, other hypotheses propose that the tusk...

Read the complete abstract on PubMed

Topics

Share this publication in a Topic to start or enrich a Post.

Share to Phenotype
Share to Tooth
Share to Whales

Methodology Data sources Editorial policy Privacy About Contact Helena Bioinformatics

Source

Open in PubMed Open full text

Identifiers

PMID: 32183636
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0950
PMCID: PMC7115180

Provenance

PubMed metadata and Literature Corpus relationships. Corpus snapshot updated 5 Sept 2026.

Related research

Semantic proximity does not establish scientific evidence.

Research trail→

Click a neighbor to travelStep 1 · 12 closest

The longer the better: evidence that narwhal tusks are sexually selected.PMID 32183636Read ↗

Biology and Cultural Importance of the Narwhal.Semantic proximity Read ↗

The growth factor BMP11 is required for the development and evolution of a male exaggerated weapon and its associated fighting behavior in a water strider.Semantic proximity Read ↗

The tale of the shrinking weapon: seasonal changes in nutrition affect weapon size and sexual dimorphism, but not contemporary evolution.Semantic proximity Read ↗

It is not always about body size: evidence of Rensch's rule in a male weapon.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Armed forces: Intrasexual selection for upper limb length in Homo sapiensSemantic proximity Read ↗

Sexual dimorphisms in body proportions of Masai giraffeSemantic proximity Read ↗

Large and exaggerated sexually selected weapons comprise high proportions of metabolically inexpensive exoskeleton.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Tests of the positive and functional allometry hypotheses for sexually selected traits in the Jamaican field cricket.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Sexual selection and allometry: a critical reappraisal of the evidence and ideas.Semantic proximity Read ↗

The evolution of relative trait size and shape: insights from the genitalia of dung beetles.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Positive allometry of sexually selected traits: Do metabolic maintenance costs play an important role?Semantic proximity Read ↗

Contrasting selection pressure on body and weapon size in a polygynous megaherbivore.Semantic proximity Read ↗

⌁Select a neighboring publication to make it the new centre.