Blog Post Module 10

 I think when it comes to sexual dimorphism and who courts who, the most important thing to remember is that in reality--it's not about sex of the individuals involved at all. As we discussed in class, it's about who invests more into the offspring instead! In probably 99% of species on earth, it is the case that females of a population are the ones that "invest more" into the offspring because they are the ones who are pregnant, give birth, breastfeed, do more of the early life care, etc. In the case of pipefish, however, it is the males who carry the babies inside them into they are ready to make their grand entrance! It makes perfect sense when you think about it that this courting phenomenon takes place--since procreating is so much work for the sex carrying the babies, they want to be woo-ed into choosing the best possible mate. They aren't going to go through that for just anybody--they're going to need to see some showgirl-like fin action before they commit to having babies together. It also makes sense, just the opposite of what we usually see, that the males are the more muted, neutral-color sex while the females have bright, showy colors all over their bodies. Not only is this again part of the courting that takes place, but it also makes biological sense that the sex protecting the babies needs to be well hidden and easily hidden from predators. If we forget about our human notions of what it means to be male or female, it fascinating what you figure out the real, biological differences are.