Long tail of the Pauma, fashionable

2008/04/03 Lakar Iraizoz, Oihane - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Eboluzioa
• Zoologia

A study by the University of Tokyo reveals that pauma males have lost the ability to attract females through the tail.

The tail of the Pauma is longer than its body, with excessive ornaments. The male needs to invest a lot of energy in something that apparently does not help him in anything. And yet all males have a very long tail.

The explanation given to her for a long time is that it is a characteristic developed by the sexual selection, that is, that the females of pauma choose their partner because they like long and decorated tails.

To confirm this theory, a team from the University of Tokyo studied the behavior of animals by observing 268 rigs between paum. And, contrary to what they expected, they saw that females did not seek a characteristic in the pauma they chose to cover.

In view of this, they try to explain why the males have developed such a long tail. They believe that in their day yes, although females gave importance to the appearance of the tail, now it seems that it has become a feature that has gone fashionable.