Female ocellated wrasse perform cryptic mate selection by controlling sperm velocity, performing sexual selection after mating. However, warmer waters reduce the females' ability to control sperm velocity, reducing their ability to enforce mate preference.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.10.648287v1?rss=1
#Science #SexualSelection #ClimateChange #Evolution #Fish #Wrasse
Januario et al. found no correlation between sexual selection intensity & speciation rates or proxy traits. Because sexual selection intensity has high intraspecific variation and low phylogenetic signal, its macroevolutionary impacts are weak. Read now!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/734457
#sexualSelection #speciation #intraspecificVariation #phylogenetics #macroevolution
Men think that women are attracted to more masculine faces than they actually are, and women think that men are attracted to more feminine faces than they actually are.
Original paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310835
Sexual selection in mosquitofish favors males with better inhibitory control and better spatial learning abilities; other aspects of cognitive performance were not favored.
Abstract (not open access): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02645-3
Sexual selection on Valentines day
Adam Ray Smith talking at #UniversityIceland #fridaybiology #SexualSelection #evolution #darwin
For men, there is a positive relationship between upper-body strength and the number of lifetime sexual partners. A new study of over 4,000 U.S. women from the NHANES dataset finds that this relationship holds true for women as well. This finding is inconsistent with the sexual selection hypothesis that has been used to explain the observed relationship in men.
Summary: https://phys.org/news/2025-01-exploring-evolution-strength-sexual-behavior.html
Original article (not open access): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513824001235?via%3Dihub
How and why does #SexualSelection vary geographically? @ra_barber @ja_tobias &co study 10,671 #bird species, revealing that avian sexual selection varies latitudinally, is explained by temperature seasonality & other #climate-related factors #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/4fixxjC
The conspicuous display of anti-predator defenses may have evolved via the use of those displays as mating signals.
Aren't mouthbrooders sexy? Rueger et al. find that sexual selection in the pajama cardinalfish, where fathers brood eggs in their mouth, changes with group size and composition. Both sexes can take advantage of extra-pair matings. Read now ahead of print!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/731422
#mouthbrooders #sexualSelection #pajamaCardinalfish #eggs #cardinalfish
This is my #introduction post! Looking forward to helping build a fish science community on Mastodon by following and boosting. I work primarily on #cichlid #speciation and #sexualselection but also #salmon and #trout. I have another account in which I post random stuff about #Hull and #running (link in my bio).
How does sexual selection influence behavioural consistency? Using experimental evolution, Brand et al. demonstrate that evolution under heightened sexual selection limits individual phenotypic plasticity and promotes male behavioural consistency.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/729600
#sexualSelection #behavioral #evolution #phenotypicPlasticity #male
New paper on the measurement of #SexualSelection!
https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad227
Sexual selection may favour combinations of traits before, during, and/or after copulation.
Here, we studied how selection builds up along consecutive episodes of selection by (i) assessing the ability of individual flatworms to mate, transfer sperm, and fertilize eggs; and (ii) measuring 13 phenotypic traits (including sperm production rate, the shape of male genitalia, and the morphology of sperm cells).
Genic capture (Evolutionary biology 🧬)
Genic capture is a hypothesis explaining the maintenance of genetic variance in traits under sexual selection. A classic problem in sexual selection is the fixation of alleles that are beneficial under strong selection, thereby eliminating the benefits of mate choice. Genic capture resolves this paradox by suggesting that additive genetic variance of sexua...
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2637: Neanderthal Genes
Episode: 2637 Neanderthal genes in the human genome, and Darwin’s theory of Sexual Selection. Today, Neanderthal genes.
#darwin #evolution #genetics #HomoSapiens #MaxPlanckInstituteForEvolutionaryAnthropology #Neanderthal #sexualSelection
New NIOO publication: The role of male body #size in mating success and male–male competition in a false widow #spider #copulationduration #reproduction #theridiidae #steatodagrossa #sexualselection
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.09.011
Some female frogs have a clever trick to avoid unwanted mating: they fake their own deaths. The frogs, known as moor frogs, turn blue during the breeding season, and can play dead when harassed by males. The strategy could help them conserve energy, avoid injuries, and choose better mates. #Frogs #SexualSelection #LiveScience https://www.livescience.com/animals/frogs/these-female-frogs-fake-their-own-deaths-to-get-out-of-sex
"I'll have what she's having!" Why do females choose particular mates? @EmilyHDuVal @servedio1 &co propose that mate choices rely on context-dependent social information, explaining major puzzles in the study of #SexualSelection, including why preferences vary among individuals and over time and how male trait variation is maintained. #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/46EHVgN
New #pterosaur species from #Solnhofen described by Dave Hone and coworkers. Got a big crest so more palaeo #SexualSelection going on. Figure 12 is especially splendid.
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/current-in-press-articles/3878-a-new-solnhofen-pterosaur
My collaboration with Jay Jinsing Falk on MJ West-Eberhard's concept on #Cross-SexualTransfer is now in a more readable print version. It was great experience being part of an amazing symposium at #SICB2023 on Sex & Diversity. If you are interested in #SexDiversity #SexualSelection and #Evolution please give this a read. Can't wait for the finalized issue!
https://academic.oup.com/icb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/icb/icad021/7153328?utm_source=advanceaccess&utm_campaign=icb&utm_medium=email
