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Animal Weapons And The Evolution Of Battle

WUNC | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published January 6, 2015 at 12:15 PM EST

Frank Stasio talks with Doug Emlen, professor of biology at the University of Montana, about his new book Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle (Henry Holt and Company/ 2014).

From horns to claws, teeth and talons, the animal kingdom features many natural weapons.

But evolutionary biologist Doug Emlen wanted to know why, in some rare cases, animals develop weapons that are dramatically outsized for their bodies. He studied creatures ranging from rhinoceros beetles to Irish elk and found the same story—an evolutionary arms race pushes animal weapons to the extreme. And this biological arms race also directly parallels human arms races like the Cold War. 

Host Frank Stasio talks with Emlen, professor of biology at the University of Montana, about his new book Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle (Henry Holt and Company/ 2014).

Male fiddler crabs wave their claws, using them as deterrents first and, only occasionally, as actual weapons.
David J. Tuss /
Male fiddler crabs wave their claws, using them as deterrents first and, only occasionally, as actual weapons.
Saber-toothed cats probably leapt from trees onto unsuspecting mastodon calves.
David J. Tuss /
Saber-toothed cats probably leapt from trees onto unsuspecting mastodon calves.
Battling bulls.
David J. Tuss /
Battling bulls.

Copyright 2015 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio