Female Dung Beetles Evolved Elaborate Horns to Fight for the Choicest Poop

Male animals often use their horns to fight over females, but at least one species' females use their horns to fight over excrement. The species, no surprise, is the dung beetle. Unlike many of the animals we usually associate with elaborate horns, antlers, or other head weaponry—in which the male has the most impressive set—dung beetle females have horns that put the male version to shame. The reason, says a new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, is that females must battle one another for that precious manure.