July 1, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by University of Essex Pioneering AI-powered research on butterflies has probed the under-studied evolution of females and adds to a debate between the founding fathers of evolution. The University of Essex study—published in Communications Biology —explores a controversy between Victorian scientists Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
Darwin thought males had more variation, as females often chose mates based on male appearance. Whereas Wallace thought natural selection across sexes was the biggest factor in difference. For over a century, scientists have mostly studied males because their differences are more obvious, while females, with more subtle evolutionary changes, had been less studied.
By using high-tech machine learning Dr. Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill examined more than 16,000 male and female birdwing butterflies, with collaborators from the Natural History Museum and AI research institute Cross Labs, Cross Compass. This is the first time the visual differences between sexes have been explored across the species, which live in Southeast Asia and Australasia.
Birdwing butterflies were chosen for this study because of their spectacular wing color patterns and differences between males and females. Dr. Cuthill,.
