The Theory Of Replaceability: An Evolutionary Mechanism Influencing Differential Variability In Dimorphic Species

A new theory is proposed to address the phenomenon of why one sex may evolve with greatervariability than the other. Briefly, the theory states that if the survivability of the offspring and thespecies depends disproportionately on one sex over the other, evolution tends to minimize variabilityin the sex which it perceives as important and less replaceable for offspring survival, while allowingfor greater variability in the other sex. This occurs due to evolution seeing one sex as less replaceable, thus favoring more stability and less variation in that sex, while allowing more experimentation and variation in the other sex which evolution sees as highly replaceable compared to the other sex.