# Article3

By [Untitled](https://paragraph.com/@0xcf7fabb84624e743edadf280fb7d4ac27819a43b) · 2024-03-17

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During the 1970’s, a mammalogist and conservation biologist named [Katherine Ralls](https://research.si.edu/publications/?action=sro_search_results&q=rallsc7162008) was among the first to take a real scientific look at this narrative and push back against this idea that most male mammals are larger. Ralls found evidence that [most mammals do not have an extreme dimorphism](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2460389). More typically, the female members of the species are the same size as the males. Larger females are surprisingly common in nature. [According to Tombak](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.23.529628v1.full.pdf), Ralls has also been commonly misquoted as supporting the larger male narrative.

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*Originally published on [Untitled](https://paragraph.com/@0xcf7fabb84624e743edadf280fb7d4ac27819a43b/article3)*