Sexual Selection:
Bright colors, enlarged fins, feather plumes, song, horns, antlers, and tusks are often highly sex dimorphic. Why have males in many animals evolved more conspicuous ornaments, signals, and weapons than females? How can such traits evolve although they may reduce male survival? Such questions prompted Darwin's perhaps most scientifically controversial idea—the theory of sexual selection. It still challenges researchers today as they try to understand how competition for mates can favor the...
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Bright colors, enlarged fins, feather plumes, song, horns, antlers, and tusks are often highly sex dimorphic. Why have males in many animals evolved more conspicuous ornaments, signals, and weapons than females? How can such traits evolve although they may reduce male survival? Such questions prompted Darwin's perhaps most scientifically controversial idea--the theory of sexual selection. It still challenges researchers today as they try to understand how competition for mates can favor the variety of sex-dimorphic traits. Reviewing theoretical and empirical work in this very active field, Malte Andersson, a leading contributor himself, provides a major up-to-date synthesis of sexual selection.The author describes the theory and its recent development; examines models, methods, and empirical tests; and identifies many unsolved problems. Among the topics discussed are the selection and evolution of mating preferences; relations between sexual selection and speciation; constraints on sexual selection; and sex differences in signals, body size, and weapons. The rapidly growing study of sexual selection in plants is also reviewed. This volume will interest students, teachers, and researchers in behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution Sexual Selection provides a masterly account of both the complex mathematical theory and the relevant data.... [It] deserves to be widely read as a definitive summary of what we know about sexual selection and as a guide to what remains to be done.
PrefaceAcknowledgments1The Theory of Sexual Selection32Genetic Models of Fisherian Self-Reinforcing Sexual Selection323Genetic Models of Indicator Mechanisms534Empirical Methods805Some Case Studies1006Empirical Studies of Sexually Selected Traits: Patterns1247Sexual Selection in Relation to Mating System and Parental Roles1438Benefits of Mate Choice1849Species Recognition, Sexual Selection, and Speciation20710Constraints22711Sexual Size Dimorphism24712Weapons29513Coloration and Other Visual Signals31514Acoustic Signals34915Chemical Signals36916Alternative Mating Tactics37917Sexual Selection in Plants39618Sexual Selection: Conclusions and Open Questions433References445Author Index561Subject Index581Taxonomic Index588
\ Trends in Ecology & EvolutionSexual Selection provides a masterly account of both the complex mathematical theory and the relevant data.... [It] deserves to be widely read as a definitive summary of what we know about sexual selection and as a guide to what remains to be done.\ \ \ \ \ Trends in Ecology and Evolution\ Sexual Selection provides a masterly account of both the complex mathematical theory and the relevant data.... [It] deserves to be widely read as a definitive summary of what we know about sexual selection and as a guide to what remains to be done.\ \
