Sexual Selection in Males and Females

Clutton‐Brock, Tim

doi:10.1126/science.1133311

Cited by 795 publications

(647 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

626

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Since females in this population have the leading role in courtship, the higher sexual competition regime may favor the appearance of SSCs (Clutton-Brock, 2007). Differences found in T levels may be related to different ovarian maturation stages, since steroid levels vary according to the development of oocytes (Berlinsky and Specker, 1991).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Environmental modulation of androgen levels and secondary sex characters in two populations of the peacock blenny Salaria pavo

Saraiva

Gonçalves

Oliveira

2010

Hormones and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Morphology and endocrinology were studied in two populations of the peacock blenny Salaria pavo, with different regimes of sexual selection imposed by differences in nest site availability. The peacock blenny is a small, sexually dimorphic benthic fish that presents exclusive paternal care of the clutch and inhabits rocky shores of the Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic areas. In a population from the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic sea) inhabiting rocky shores where nest sites are abundant, male-male competition for nests is low, males court females and a low frequency of alternative reproductive tactics (small, parasitic femalemimicking sneaker males that change tactic into nest holders in subsequent breeding seasons) occurs. Conversely at Ria Formosa, a coastal lagoon in Southern Portugal, where nest sites are scarce and highly aggregated, male-male competition for nests is very high, there is sex-role reversal with female courtship and a high frequency of alternative reproductive tactics is observed. Concomitantly, at Ria Formosa nest holder males are larger and present more developed secondary sex characters and higher levels of 11KT than at the Gulf of Trieste. However, the gonads of nest holders and parasitic males were larger in the Gulf of Trieste population. Competition for nests at Ria Formosa seems to promote more developed secondary sex characters in nest site scarcity conditions, while competition for females at the Gulf of Trieste seems to be spurring sperm competition among males in populations where nest sites are more abundant. 11KT was thus associated with the development and expression of secondary sex characters in contrasting environments. These results exemplify how the modulation of behavioral plasticity and secondary sex characters by the social environment can be mediated by androgens.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Environmental modulation of androgen levels and secondary sex characters in two populations of the peacock blenny Salaria pavo

Saraiva

Gonçalves

Oliveira

2010

Hormones and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Sexual dimorphism, where the same trait takes on different states in the two sexes, is a nearly ubiquitous phenomenon in nature, and understanding the evolutionary forces that lead to sexual dimorphism is an important goal for evolutionary biology (Clutton‐Brock, 2007; Poissant et al, 2010). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum

Lough-Stevens

Schultz

Dean

2017

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the evolutionary forces that influence sexual dimorphism is a fundamental goal in biology. Here, we focus on one particularly extreme example of sexual dimorphism. Many mammal species possess a bone in their penis called a baculum. The female equivalent of this bone is called the baubellum and occurs in the clitoris, which is developmentally homologous to the male penis. To understand the potential linkage between these two structures, we scored baculum/baubellum presence/absence across 163 species and analyzed their distribution in a phylogenetic framework. The majority of species (N = 134) shared the same state in males and females (both baculum and baubellum present or absent). However, the baubellum has experienced significantly more transitions, and more recent transitions, so that the remaining 29 species have a baculum but not a well‐developed baubellum. Even in species where both bones are present, the baubellum shows more ontogenetic variability and harbors more morphological variation than the baculum. Our study demonstrates that the baculum and baubellum are generally correlated across mammals, but that the baubellum is more evolutionarily and developmentally labile than the baculum. The accumulation of more evolutionary transitions, especially losses in the baubellum, as well as noisier developmental patterns, suggests that the baubellum may be nonfunctional, and lost over time.

show abstract

“…Indeed, quantifying mating patterns is the first step in disentangling the still‐debated factors underlying the evolution of female ornaments. For instance, female ornaments may be an evolutionary by‐product resulting from selection for male ornaments and/or emerge from direct sexual or social selection on female traits (Clutton‐Brock, 2007; Tobias, Montgomerie, & Lyon, 2012). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assortative mating by colored ornaments in blue tits: space and time matter

Fargevieille

Grégoire

Charmantier

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Assortative mating is a potential outcome of sexual selection, and estimating its level is important to better understand local adaptation and underlying trait evolution. However, assortative mating studies frequently base their conclusions on small numbers of individuals sampled over short periods of time and limited spatial scales even though spatiotemporal variation is common. Here, we characterized assortative mating patterns over 10 years in four populations of the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), a passerine bird. We focused on two plumage ornaments—the blue crown and the yellow breast patch. Based on data for 1,657 pairs of birds, we found large interannual variation: assortative mating varied from positive to negative. To determine whether there was nonetheless a general trend in the data, we ran a within‐study meta‐analysis. It revealed that assortative mating was moderately positive for both ornaments. It also showed that mating patterns differed among populations and especially between two neighboring populations that displayed phenotypic divergence. Our results therefore underscore that long‐term studies are needed to draw broad conclusions about mating patterns in natural populations. They also call for studying the potential role of assortative mating in local adaptation and evolution of ornaments in both sexes.

show abstract

Sexual Selection in Males and Females

Abstract: Sexual Selection in Males and Females www.sciencemag.org (this information is current as of June 3, 2008 ):The following resources related to this article are available online at

Cited by 795 publications

References 57 publications

Environmental modulation of androgen levels and secondary sex characters in two populations of the peacock blenny Salaria pavo

Environmental modulation of androgen levels and secondary sex characters in two populations of the peacock blenny Salaria pavo

The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum

Assortative mating by colored ornaments in blue tits: space and time matter

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About