Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25503413-20141005162023/@comment-1738746-20141106013553

When a dragon, or animal for that matter, have different looking males and females, it's called sexual dimorphism. Just like in real life, some animals show this and others don't. There are many reasons and theories as to why animals display sexual dimorphism, one of the main reasons being that dimorphic species are non-monogamous (they breed with multiple partners). As a result, male competition for females becomes a very big deal, so they need favourable traits in order to be chosen by many females e.g. the peacock with the largest/most beautiful tail gets the most females. I presume artists reflect this in the sprites to give their dragons more realism :)