What evolutionary advantage/disadvantage would minimal sexual dimorphism have on a certain race?

what evolutionary advantage/disadvantage would minimal sexual dimorphism have on a certain race?

Reminder that this is not how blood elves look.

Just saying.

Maybe not in your setting.

Disadvantage: it takes longer for the animal to find a mate, since they will sometimes mistakenly court one that is of the wrong gender. (This actually happens in real life with some species. It should not be mistaken for homosexual activity; it isn't trying to fuck another male because it likes males, but because it does not realise that it is male).

Advantage: the traits might be optimal for the environment. For example, if both the male and the female bird have the same mottled-brown plumage, it may be because the advantage from the camouflage is greater than the advantage from having different plumage.

Evolution is nonsense, however, so you shouldn't worry about it.

I enjoy Blood Elves for their strange faces, but I still see TES Dunmer as the epitome of cool alien looking elves.

You just wanted to make a thread about fucking cute female elves and female (male) elves didn't you OP?

Well the male elf here has signs of neoteny (shorter, more childish facial features, less developed nose, rounder eyes) so we can perhaps assume that, like domestic cats, male elves in this elf society have evolved to be desirable based on how cute or 'petlike' they are. It's probably a matriarchy which has existed for enough time to actually impact elf evolution (actually possible given elf lifespans and typical social stagnancy) where male elves basically exist for entertainment purposes.

bonus question

how will the social interaction will change? will equality or even matriarchy be a thing among said race ?
nope, not today

How do you explain extreme tallness of Elves and seemingly smaller muscle mass than humans? Where would that be beneficial?

They're arboreal?

He means that male blood elves are manlier than most people give them credit for.

Lol benis :DD

The tallness is useful for reaching more distant branches, and having less mass makes it easier to climb. Have you ever seen a trained human child on a rockwall? They can do it better than adults, despite their lower strength and coordination, simply because they are lighter.

I dunno man I can only see the faces from the image in the OP.

I don't know of many settings where elves are actually weaker than humans (in D&D it's usually constitution that's deficient, not strength, and I think elves are shorter than humans there quite often too). But humans are themselves pretty weak vs. animals, we don't have muscles adapted for strength.

Probably, because we hadn't had enough elf bait threads causing all kinds of shit today.

I believe that lack of constitution is supposed to represent smaller muscle mass and maybe even weaker bones while str and dex being comparable to that of humans is because they are lighter but still have stronger muscles than a human of comparable weight would have and therefor can pull themselves up easier/are faster etc.
I dunno if I'm talking bull, I'm no expert

did i miss something?

I see that being touted for Eldar in 40k a fair bit. I think it comes from that Xenology book.

someone mad a thread wit only
>elves are
in the op. People then made that kind of thread for other races all day now.

Maybe elves have much more stable genetics meaning in the long-term their bodies don't degrade anything like as quickly, or their cells successfully refresh for much longer periods of time, but they also don't adapt as rapidly or heal as rapidly as humans do. Like a cut or a toxin has a bigger impact on them, but they develop cancers and age-related disorders at a vastly reduced rate.

i see

still fap bait shit wasn't my intention, the idea suddenly came up to me for some reason.

Using the men as decoys for sexual predators to keep the women safe.

>tfw a fucking elf creeps up to your fire because it smells food
>tfw you feed it for some reason just because it looks cute

they'd be a pair-bonding species rather than a tournament species, doesn't really seem to be either a big advantage or disadvantage. if you have their females be larger and stronger than human females then that might be an advantage in war, maybe? also there would probably be knock-on effects on their social structure, but that could go in all sorts of different directions.

Given that runaway sexual selection can lead to actively harmful adaptations being selected for, you don't actually need a trait to have specific advantages.

In this case, it would simply be that sexual selection in both sexes prioritizes the same physical traits.

>It should not be mistaken for homosexual activity; it isn't trying to fuck another male because it likes males, but because it does not realise that it is male
Let's not pretend that there aren't shitload of animals who can and will knowingly have gay sex, though.

WHERE ARE THE ELVEN MEN!

Wouldn't that mean lots of homosexuality though?

>male elves are more likely to try and reproduce with male humans than with females

lol indeed my friend, lol indeed

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How do you explain extreme tallness of Humans and seemingly smaller muscle mass than neanderthals? Where would that be beneficial?

Concept is cute but it would be better if the male was feminine looking but still vaguely male looking rather than looking like a baby faced version od the female
Altough a gender specific neoteny is an interresting explanation of why males look so much like females

Quality post.

What if it is the case of humans and the other near-human fantasy races have a far stronger sexual dimorphism?

so stronk male and female, right?

i think there would be more infighting to assure dominance.

orcs but on steroids perhaps?

More like bisexuality, either way it would be fine since they live so long.

Sexual dimorphism is typically the result of sexual selection, not natural selection. i.e., these traits are selected based not on fitness or environmental factors, but rather by what the opposite genders find attractive.

Minimal difference between males and females likely wouldnt cause too significant an impact. intense differences can actually become detrimental, however.
pic related. Female stalk eyed flies want to fuck the flies with the longest eye stocks, to the point where males have difficulty flying. this is mitigated by normal natural selection, where males with eyestalks TOO long are selected against through environmental factors.

Other factors could arise in the presence of other sapient races, however. Say for example, if humans are at war with elves, and tend to have reservations against harming females, the elves androgyny could play into their advantage

rape really is better than flirting

Now see, thats where it gets interesting
In species where rape is common, you end up with males and females more or less in an evolutionary arms race against eachother, males evolving more aggressive means of copulation, and females evolving ways to prevent undesirable males from siring offspring.

Ducks are a big example of this. Male ducks have explosive, corckscrew penises that will actually seek out the females vagina. Meanwhile, female fucks have evolved vaginas with maze-like inner workings and dead ends to thrwart overly aggressive mating attempts.
I'd post a picture but I dont know what Veeky Forumss policy on animal genitalia is, but goddamn its terrifying.

everyone knows about ducks and their whacky dicks

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Read Left Hand of Darkness by LeGuin

Elf lifespan would actually slow the impact of evolution. Short lived creatures are the ones that change more rapidly

Stronger muscles would by default require stronger bones.

Let's be honest. They're both fucking adorable.

That could be an evolutionary advantage when dealing with other races. Humans are more likely to protect their elves if said elves are fucking adorable. Then, given the human propensity for being sluts some of that rubs off on the elves so the elves that have spent the most time around humans are the ones more likely to make more elves.

They're cute but they're both foul-mouthed problem children of their race.

and both of them have tried human dick at least once

They already do that.

Stick to ERP friend.

heh

Please don't bump the thread if you don't have anything to contribute.

I have gay elves?

>2 Bros can't hold hands and get ice cream together anymore

This is the problem with societies sex obsession these days

I can't out on my boyshorts with the sick ass bulge and take my bros arm and deepthroat popsicles without people thinking we're homo.

Well, it makes it harder for predator species to target the mother or father respectively which could provide protection depending on the power dymorphism. As an aside, it could be a useless or negative trait that accidentally got kept because nothing was able to pressure it out of their dna

>wearing clothes at all

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Bro if I don't wear shorts how will I show off my sick ass bulge

It's like dude cleavage

Bitches titties get saggy without support it's the same for your balls

-5 trap detection

Is there more by this guy? his name gives jack shit on google.

Are BEs still like 70% of the horde?

When orcs raid they have 50/50 chance of stealing a male elf so they can't breed

sadly yes.
I'm a huge fan of the blood elves since their survival efforts on the campaign of froze throne but lorewise they should be the horde race with less population.

>they have 50/50 chance of stealing a male elf so they can't breed
>so they can't breed
Are you sure about that?

so it's a win-win situation for orkz in that case.
Wonder if orkz/elves are subjected to wolf/hare model(just on more sexual level)

But hares are supposed to reproduce rapidly. Is this why elves are lewd?

depends, original model works as predator/prey model, dunno if you can apply it to sexual predatory, but it would go like this:
1.elves reproduce normally
2.orkz steal elves so they can reproduce
3.population of elves decreases
4.orkz have nothing to steal
5.orkz population decreases
did i mention orkz are fucking idiots because they can also breed with one another
6.less stealings
7.elves population increases
goto 2

Tho, i sorta think it would work better for something with faster reproduction cycle

Yes, orcs are savages that constantly die in stupid fights. Elves barely reproduce

They would spend a lot less time and energy bitching over sexual social roles than humans
Social groups would be less sexually segregated and society would be more cohesive on the whole
I think it'd be pretty great. People wouldn't be able to default to their sex as a cornerstone of their identity, so they'd have to put more effort into building one using cooler ideas. People would generalize their concepts of each other a lot less, too, because there are less characteristics to use as a basis for generalization. Empathy would increase because you're more likely to see yourself in others.

both races would die out then, cause orkz would die out before elves could repopulate their domain.
Elves would die too(because they'd overflow the environment), or at least were kept on some stable level(cause they'd hit some kind of ceiling)

Except reproduction would be so slow that their technology will allow them to improve space efficiency faster than they can consume it, hares dont do technology.

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i see why this model falls apart when applied to animals capable of thought.

why start a hare/wolf analogy when the hares do not rapidly reproduce and are intelligent creatures.

because i took a break from preparing to exams and don't really thing straight

Im preparing for the exams right now and in 4 hours I have my first one Im fucked and I noticed your mistake immediately.

i am not very bright, can't even really excuse myself, because it was a mistake in reasoning. What are you preparing for?

The "male" there looks cuter than the female.

Lorewise they are the horde race with the least population

macromolecular chemistry. Have to memorise and derive a lot of formulae and do calculations with them.

Better efficiency when traveling long distances.

awww, we will have something vaguely similar in the next year, only from more biochemical standpoint. Though, it will be completly different most likely, cause we will calculate a lot less and focus mostly on "how"

All lectures were purely about how and why it happened, then the exams are just calculations on how much water you have to remove if you want to make a polyester.

>biochemical
Disgusting monodisperse polymer faggots

ara ara guess you arent ready for TRUE fun-stuff

Also as a downside reproduction would slow a lot, I'd imagine, because someone looking like/behaving like an ideal model of their sex would no longer be enough to justify getting married and having kids and the like. People would be more inclined towards reproducing with those that they know on a more intimate level, because they'd expect to be able to understand their partner rather than not (as an example, you can't write off "the wife" doing too much shopping because as her just being a woman and as a behavior you could never understand because you are fundamentally different from her, instead the behavior would receive a lot more scrutiny)

People would be a lot pickier, I think.

> Have you ever seen a trained human child on a rockwall? They can do it better than adults, despite their lower strength and coordination, simply because they are lighter.
This made me think about my youth
Climbing in trees was so much easier back then

Came here to post that.

tell that to darksun elves

>because someone looking like/behaving like an ideal model of their sex would no longer be enough to justify getting married and having kids and the like
Behavior would still be relevant, as would wealth, status, achievements, etc. Intimacy would still never be a necessary reason to marry

They would be a lot more attractice because sexual dimorphism prevents the optimization of beauty through sexual selection of physical attractiveness as too many genes good for the physical appareance for one sex but bad for the other are rarely tied to one gender.
It can be something obvious like a woman inheriting a manjaw from her father with an attractive (for a man) jaw but there is a lot of more subtle intergerational and crossgender genetic dynamics meaning a bloodline can't stay very attractive for a long time.

Also they would be either a lot taller OR a lot shorter than humans as the gene responsible for the production of growth hormone comes from the father while the one regulating it comes from the mother.
Males have an interest in being taller and bigger than females and other males, while females have an interest in their babies not being too big for them to safely give birth.
With a very low sexual dimorphism, they will either produce a lot of growth hormone or very little of if as there isn't evolutive conflict between males and females.
So they are either inhumanly beautiful and tall or short and is still as pretty.

Sexual dimorphism exists for specialization, thus will arise with animals who live in groups and not arise for solitary animals.

That's probably about it. Those who are communal would like have males and females grow differently to satisfy different roles. Solitary animals who will only meet to mate and split again would have to be optimized to fend for themselves.

There are plenty of social monkeys with low sexual dimorphism though.

Anthropologically, inside from each member of the species being essentially equal, it encourages sexual monogamy and mate pairing that lasts till death. Thus, with the lifespan of elves, you have a singular mating pair producing offspring for an extremely long time

Everything in TES games looks alien. Bethesda just cannot into faces.

I never said everyone will go one road or another. Evolution doesn't produce best, only good enough.

>Female elves have larger penises than males

See

>Let's not pretend that there aren't shitload of animals who can and will knowingly have gay sex, though.

Not exclusively.

Neanderthals couldn't throw spears as effectively.

Except this is not graphics, but concept art.

Satan gives the right answer.