FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY IN ANTLERS OF ALASKAN MOOSE: SIZE MATTERS
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We studied characteristics of paired antlers, including types of asymmetry, from 1,501 Alaskan moose (Alces alces gigas). We observed no evidence of antisymmetry in moose antlers, but number of tines was greater on left than right antlers, indicating directional asymmetry. Absolute and relative fluctuating asymmetry (FA) occurred for palm characteristics but not for beam circumference. Relative FA varied inversely with the overall size of antlers for attributes of the palm, which was expected for a secondary sexual characteristic. Smaller-antlered males exhibited greater FA than did larger-antlered moose in palm characteristics. Because large-antlered males, which mate most often among moose and other polygynous cervids, expressed the least relative FA, we hypothesize that this metric indicates quality of individual moose. Whether symmetry of antlers is related to antler breakage or honest advertisement or whether females select mates based on FA is unknown and deserves additional study.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".