How can females and males evolve drastically different body sizes? Matthew has contributed to a paper that tackles this very question, in Kaufmann, Wolak, Husby, & Immonen. 2021. Nature Ecology and Evolution - now published online!
With a monumental amount of rearing and dogged commitment to complicated statistical analyses, we were able to demonstrate ways by which the quantitative genetic architecture of seed beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus) contribute to evolutionary responses to sex-specific or sexually antagonistic selection. One of the most exciting, and intriguing, results was that a large amount of variation for male body size could be linked back to their Y-chromosomes. The variety of alleles for body size that can be attributed to Y-chromosomes accounted for 30% of the evolutionary change in sexual size dimorphism!