Hi, I have a question about the evolution of sexual traits I want to understand. Specifically, the lion's mane, another animal that's a perfect example is the male peacock. The way I percieved what I've read about this morphed trait (mane of lion) is that a male has a mane because the females favored it the same goes for the beautiful feathers of a male peacock. So how does a trait such as a mane know the opposite sex favors it? For one thing didn't it have to be there first for the opposite sex to know if they liked it or not? 

51 minutes ago, SerengetiLion said:

Hi, I have a question about the evolution of sexual traits I want to understand. Specifically, the lion's mane, another animal that's a perfect example is the male peacock. The way I percieved what I've read about this morphed trait (mane of lion) is that a male has a mane because the females favored it the same goes for the beautiful feathers of a male peacock. So how does a trait such as a mane know the opposite sex favors it? For one thing didn't it have to be there first for the opposite sex to know if they liked it or not? 

A trait is favoured when it produces more offspring. The more offspring that a trait produces, the more it is reinforced by virtue of there being more offspring with that trait. The mane will have originally come about by random mutation, then it was up to other factors, like attractiveness to lionesses, to determine whether it will be perpetuated, by mating, more favorably over other versions of that characteristic (phenotype)..

Edited March 12, 20196 yr by StringJunky

I always assumed the lions mane protected the lions neck from other male lions.  A bigger thicker mane would increase the lions change of surviving a fight with another lion.

Bufofrog....well you're like most people in thinking that and I understand the reasoning of it. When lions fight and imo the lion has the most brutal life because the possibly of a fight is constant not to mention that the young males are "run out" of their family pride by their father(s) when they start developing a mane as this is indicative of coming into sexual maturity. Concerning the mane as a protective defense to protect the neck during fights lions actually "go" for their opponents (other lions) hind quarters. The mane is considered a sexual ornament and there's never been another animal I've  been more interested in than the lion. The kind of things that make me ask questions as the one I did in this feed.