Gorbachev, Mikhail
grackles, great-tailed
grasshoppers, foam
Greeks, ancient
Grenada
grenades
Grimaldi, David
guerrilla warfare
gun ports
gunpowder
habitat
hares, snowshoe
Hayden, Thomas
health
hedgehogs
helmets
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Hoekstra, Hopi
Homer
horns
antelope
beetle
clades and
duels and
giraffes and
ibex
increases vs. decreases in
Kyptoceras
pig
resources and
sexual selection and
Synthetoceras
topi
trilobite
woolly rhinoceros
horses, knights and
horseshoe crabs
humans. See also knights; soldiers; and specific battles; nations; and weapon types
access to resources and
armor and
arms races between rival states and
arms races ended with cheap weapons
comparing animal weapons and
costs of weapons and
cultural vs. biological evolution and
defensive weapons and
deterrence and
division of labor and
duels and
eggs vs. sperm size and
male competition for females and
Hunt, John
hunter-gatherers
hunting skills
hyenas
hyper-carnivore predators
ibex
improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
Incan empire
Incisitermes
incisors
India
insects. See also specific types
colonies, and body shape
exoskeletons
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)
Iran
Iraq War
Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus)
Iroquois
Israel
Italy
jacanas
Japan
javelina
jaws
alligator gar
ant
caiman
cat
crocodile
eel
fish
hyena
piranha
predator
sabertooth
speed vs. strength of
wolf
Jericho
Judea
K-324 submarine
katydid
leaf-mimicking
spines
Kaufman, Donald
Kevlar
kiwis
knights
knives
Koga, Tsunenori
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean War
Kyptoceras
Lachish
La Milpa
lances
Lanchester, Frederick William
Lanchester’s linear law
Lanchesters’s square law
land mines
Latvia
law of the lever
leaf-footed bugs
leaf mimicking
Levinton, Jeff
lions
lizards
lock-and-release mechanism
longbows
Lorch, Patrick
Los Alamos Laboratories
lures
lynx
Canada
tooth size
M1 rifle
M4 rifle
M16 rifle
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
Mach II technology
machine guns
Maginot Line
mammals. See also specific types
predators
mammoths
Columbian
woolly
mandibles, stag beetle
mantis shrimp
manufactured structures
Maori villages
marine isopod crustaceans
marsupials, sabertooth
mastodons
matted hair
Mayan fortifications
McCloy, USS (frigate)
McElligott, Alan
Me 262 fighter plane
metabolism
metal blades
mice
burrows
field
inland vs. beach
microscopic weapons
Middle Ages. See also knights
MiG-15 fighter planes
MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighter planes
missiles
Missouri, USS (battleship)
mitochondria
MKb 42 (H) rifle
Moen, Ron
Moffett, Mark
molars
Montserrat
moose
Gallic
mountain lions
Mullen, Lynne
multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs)
muscle cells
muskets
mutations
Napoleonic Wars
NASA
Nasutitermes soldiers
NATO
natural selection
camouflage and
carnivore teeth and
fish jaws and
sexual selection vs.
stickleback spines and
Nautilus, USS (submarine)
Nicaragua
Nile Valley
nimravids
North Korea
nuclear weapons
nutrition
ogrefish
Olmec empire
Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern (OCP)
Oppenheimer, J. Robert
osteoporosis
owls
P-51D Mustang fighter plane
pair bonds, long-term
Pakistan
pangolins
parasites
parental care
Pastor, John
Patek, Sheila
pathogens
biological weapons and
Patriot Advanced Capability antimissile system
Pax Americana
Pax Britannica
Pax Romana
peacocks
peasant fighters
pedipalps
performance, balance between size and
Pershing II missiles
Petrov, Stanislav
Phoenicians
pigs
pill bugs
piranha
points
political arms races
pollution
Pomiankowski, Andrew
Poole, Joyce
porcupine fish, long-spine
porcupines
praying mantises
predators
ambush
camouflage and
fiddler crabs and
hunting weapons and
lake vs. marine habitats and
stalking
teeth of
premolars
pseudoscorpions
Ptolemy V
reproduction. See also sexual selection
resources
cost effectiveness and
deterrence and
discretionary pools within species and
dung beetles and
fiddler crabs and
fixed
localized, rare, and economically defensible
political arms races and
sneaky males and
trade-offs and
rhinoceros
woolly
Ribeyrolle 1918 rifle
rifles
RNA
rocket technology
Romans, ancient
> ruffs
Russia
sabertooths
salmon
samurai
satellite males
Schluter, Dolph
Schöning, Caspar
scimitar-toothed cat
scorpions
scrambles
seals, elephant
Semna
sexual selection
arms race collapse and
balance between costs and benefits and
cicada-killer wasps and
clades and
competition and
costs of weapons and
differences within species and
duels and
economic defensibility and
elephants and
extreme
female choice and
harlequin beetles and
horseshoe crabs and
jacanas and
knights and
natural selection vs.
New Guinean antlered fly and
pseudoscorpions and
sneaky males and
stag beetles and
stalk-eyed flies and
weapon size enhanced by
sheep, bighorn
Sheridan tank
shields
ships
aircraft carriers
battleships
bireme (“twos”)
carrier strike groups
Cold War
container
deterrence and
destroyers
dreadnoughts
fire ships
first-rate
fives
forty
galleons
ironclads
Lanchester’s models and
oared galleys
penteconters
Q-ships
steam-powered
trireme (“threes’)
shrimp
pistol
siafu. See ants, African army
siege warfare
signals
Simmons, Leigh
sloths, giant
Smilodon fatalis
snakes
sneaky tactics (cheating; sneak attacks)
arms race collapse and
bighorn sheep and
costs vs. benefits and
cuttlefish and
dung beetles and
evolution of
humans and
marine isopod crustaceans and
ruffs and
salmon and
ships and
sunfish
soldier insects
soldiers. See also knights; peasant fighters; and specific weapons
artillery and
body armor and
camouflage
Sopwith Tabloid biplane
South Africa
Soviet Union
space race
Spanish Armada
spears
Special Forces
speed
sperm
spiderwebs
spikes and spines
Spratt, Norman
spurs, jacana
Sputnik
squad automatic weapons (SAWs)
squirters
stalker fish
star fort
Stg 44 rifle
sticklebacks
three-spined
Su-15 fighter planes
Su-30 Flanker planes
submarines
suicide bombers
Sumner, Francis Bertody
sunfish
Sun Tzu
Swallow, John
swine flu
Synthetocreas
Syracusans, ancient
Taliban
tanks
teeth
ambush predators and
breakage
dinosaur
fish and
mammalian predator
omnivore
trade-offs and
Teleopsis
dalmanni
quinqueguttata
whitei
Tenochtitlan
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system
termites
fortifications
Macrotermes subhyalinus
queens
soldiers
terrorism
testes
theropod dinosaurs
tigers
Tigris-Euphrates rivers
Tikal
Titan II ICBMs
titanotheres
Titan Rain attacks
toads, cane
Tomkins, Joe
topi
torpedoes
“Tortoise and the Hare, The” (Aesop)
toxins
trade-offs. See also costs vs. benefits; resources
division of labor and
portability and
resource allocation and
speed and
teeth and
trebuchets
triceratops
trilobites
tuna
tunnels
side
Turner, Ted
turtles
tusks
Columbian mammoth
dolphin
elephant
mastodon
narwhal
resources and
ungulate
wasp
Tyrannosaurus rex
Ukraine
underground fortifications
ungulate clades
United States
Cold War and
cyberattacks on
U.S. Army
U.S. Navy
Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP)
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, drones)
Uruk
V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft
vehicular arms races
Vietnam War
viperfish
viruses
Vulpavus
walruses
Warsaw Pact
Washington, Lake
wasps
cicada-killer
West African
weapons of mass destruction
weevils
Weibel M/1932 rifle
whales
Wilkinson, Gerald
wings
beetle horns and
insect soldiers and
wolves
World War I
World War II
Wright, Orville and Wilbur
Younger Dryas
zebra
Zeh, David
Zeh, Jeanne
Zeleny Island airspace
zero-day attacks
The earliest human paintings—some more than 30,000 years old—portray animals with extreme weapons. Wooly rhinoceros from Chauvet Cave (Above) and Irish elk from Lascaux Cave (Below).
Elk pay a steep price for their weapons. Bulls double their daily energetic needs and leach essential minerals away from other bones in order to grow antlers.
Many animals, such as this katydid, rely on camouflage to avoid being eaten by predators. Leaf-mimic katydids even rock back and forth when they walk, resembling a leaf fluttering in the wind.
Special Forces snipers also rely on camouflage, choosing from among a selection of specialized suits the one most likely to match the particular background of each mission. Exquisite background matching is not cost effective for most other situations, and the majority of soldiers wear uniforms that provide only moderate camouflage—a universal color pattern designed to work reasonably well against a range of different backgrounds.
Animals employ diverse defensive weapons, including spines and armor.
Cats are agile predators whose weapons are moderate in size, reflecting a balance between selection for killing large prey and selection for agility and speed. Above: Mountain lions behind the author’s house. Below: Canada lynx.
Weapons in ambush predators experience very different selection from weapons in other predators. Inst
ead of running, swimming, or flying fast to catch prey, ambush predators snatch them with a quick strike from claspers. As a result, many have large weapons. Above: Mantisfly. Below: Peacock mantis shrimp.
The most extreme animal weapons are wielded by males, and used in battles for access to females. Above: Rhinoceros beetle horns. Below: Harlequin beetle forelegs.
Diversity in dung beetle horns. All of these species are “tunnelers,” who use their weapons in fights for burrows containing females.
When males fight in unrestricted places, such as in the air, or in chaotic scrambles, agility takes precedence over big weapons. Above: Cicada killer wasps. Below: Horseshoe crabs.
Males in many animals, such as these flies, fight over restricted, economically defensible resources visited by females. In these situations, big weapons are often beneficial. Above: Stalk-eyed flies defend hanging rootlets on which females roost. Below: Antlered flies defend egg-laying holes in the bark of fallen trees.
Duels are an essential ingredient of an arms race. When rival males face off one-on-one, selection often favors the male with the bigger weapons, driving evolution of extreme weapon sizes. Above: Stag beetle males. Below: White-tailed deer.
Vehicles also often fight in one-on-one duels and, as in animals, this can trigger an arms race. Above: The addition of a battering ram precipitated explosive growth in ship size in oared galleys of the ancient Mediterranean, settling in the end on the “five.” Below: Side-mounted cannons had the same effect on sailing galleons.
Fallow deer and moose pay exorbitantly for their weapons, and for the stamina and energy needed to win fights during the rut, suffering gashes, infections, and depleted energy reserves. Above: Three-quarters of fallow deer bucks die without ever succeeding in defending territories, and 90 percent fail to mate even once in their lifetime. Below: Bull moose double their daily energetic demands while growing antlers, and a third die from injuries sustained during combat.
Battling for access to females is dangerous, resulting frequently in serious wounds and, occasionally, death. Above: Fighting male oryx. Below: Male antelope died after their horns locked together in combat.
Relative to their body size, male fiddler crabs wield the largest weapons of any animal.
Because fighting is dangerous, males assess each other beforehand, comparing weapons and pushing. Claws function as deterrents, and fights only escalate when males are evenly matched.
Ships function as deterrents, too. Above: Capital “ships of the line” were the most expensive and powerful weapons of their day. Out of reach to all but the richest nations, these ships projected power to the farthest reaches of the globe. Below: Nimitz-class aircraft carriers function in this same capacity today.
Searching for sneaky males. Above: Male dung beetles fight inside a tunnel; the female is beneath them to the right. Below: Observing behavior inside tunnels is possible using “ant farms.” Small, hornless males sometimes sneak into guarded tunnels below ground, digging side tunnels that intercept the main tunnels beneath guarding males.
Animal Weapons Page 30