Sexually selected traits evolve positive allometry when some matings occur irrespective of the trait
Fromhage, L., & Kokko, H. (2014). Sexually selected traits evolve positive allometry when some matings occur irrespective of the trait. Evolution, 68(5), 1332-1338. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.12349
Published in
EvolutionDate
2014Copyright
© 2014 The Author(s). Evolution © 2014 The Society for the Study of Evolution. This is a final draft version of an article whose final and definitive form has been published by Wiley-Blackwell.
Positive allometry of secondary sexual traits (whereby larger individuals have disproportionally larger traits than smaller individuals) has been called one of the most pervasive and poorly understood regularities in the study of animal form and function. Its widespread occurrence is in contrast with theoretical predictions that it should evolve only under rather special circumstances. Using a combination of mathematical modeling and simulations, here we show that positive allometry is predicted to evolve under much broader conditions than previously recognized. This result hinges on the assumption that mating success is not necessarily zero for males with the lowest trait values: for example, a male who lacks horns or antlers might still be able to copulate if encountering an unguarded female. We predict the strongest positive allometry when males typically (but not always) compete in large groups, and when trait differences decisively determine the outcome of competitive interactions.
...


Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.; Society for the Study of EvolutionISSN Search the Publication Forum
0014-3820Keywords
Original source
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1558-5646Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/23681428
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Additional information about funding
HK was supported by the Australian Research Council and the Academy of Finland.Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
Implications of size‐selective fisheries on sexual selection
Uusi-Heikkilä, Silva (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020)Fisheries often combine high mortality with intensive size‐selectivity and can, thus, be expected to reduce body size and size variability in exploited populations. In many fish species, body size is a sexually selected ... -
Size-selective harvesting fosters adaptations in mating behavior and reproductive allocation, affecting sexual selection in fish
Sbragaglia, Valerio; Gliese, Catalina; Bierbach, David; Honsey, Andrew E.; Uusi-Heikkilä, Silva; Arlinghaus, Robert (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2019)The role of sexual selection in the context of harvest‐induced evolution is poorly understood. However, elevated and trait‐selective harvesting of wild populations may change sexually selected traits, which in turn can ... -
Female Sexual Signaling in a Capital Breeder, the European Glow-Worm Lampyris noctiluca
Baudry, Gautier; Hopkins, Juhani; Watts, Phillip C.; Kaitala, Arja (Springer, 2021)Theory predicts that because costs constrain female sexual signaling, females are expected to have a low signaling effort that is increased with passing time until mating is secured. This pattern of signaling is expected ... -
The balance model of honest sexual signaling
Fromhage, Lutz; Henshaw, Jonathan M. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022)Costly signalling theory is based on the idea that individuals may signal their quality to potential mates and that the signal's costliness plays a crucial role in maintaining information content (‘honesty’) over evolutionary ... -
Sexual selection and costs of sexual signalling in a wolf spider
Kotiaho, Janne (1997)There are two major theories of sexual selection that both assume female choice of a costly male trait. They differ in respect to how they consider the costs of a trait; Fisherian self-reinforcing theory of sexual selection ...