Evolutionary wars of the sexes are less easily resolved than previously thought. Genetic conflicts over physical traits that help one sex but harm the other sometimes appear to be settled by a trait evolving to develop only in the sex it benefits, as with the flamboyant tails of male peacocks, for instance. Now, however, David Hosken of the University of Exeter, UK, has shown these battles can have surprising knock-on effects - at least in broad-horned flour beetles.
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