It looks as though the post you were responding to was wrong to treat these as incompatible hypotheses.
No doubt, peackock tails are magnified by sexual selection, costly and illustrating parasite resistance. However, though compatible, these explanations do compete with each other a little—for example, when explaining particular features of the tails.
It looks as though the post you were responding to was wrong to treat these as incompatible hypotheses.
No doubt, peackock tails are magnified by sexual selection, costly and illustrating parasite resistance. However, though compatible, these explanations do compete with each other a little—for example, when explaining particular features of the tails.