Fig. 6: There is no effect on the intensity of split in the population when the secondary sexual traits of the females and males are absent.

We check if the choosiness of the females or the investment strategy of the males has any role in dictating the evolutionary trajectory of the population. Null case here corresponds to the scenario where the females are choosy, and the males invest in making an ornament. The data shown here were obtained when the strength of disruptive selection and sexual selection were ~3.84 and 5, respectively. There is no change in the intensity of split in the population (p = ns, two-tailed t test), in the three test cases—a in an environment where the females are not choosy but the males invest in making an ornament, b when the males do not invest in making an ornament but the females are choosy, and c when the females are not choosy and the males do not make an ornament. The error bars indicate means ± standard deviations.