Ecological determinants of sex roles and female sexual selection

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin M. Hare ◽  
Leigh W. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Sex Roles

scholarly journals Mate Choice, Sex Roles and Sexual Cognition in Vertebrates: Mate Choice Turns Cognition or Cognition Turns Mate Choice?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Fuss
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Mating System ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Antipredator Behavior ◽  
Energy Levels ◽  
Problem Solver

The idea of “smart is sexy,” meaning superior cognition provides competitive benefits in mate choice and, therefore, evolutionary advantages in terms of reproductive fitness, is both exciting and captivating. Cognitively flexible individuals perceive and adapt more dynamically to (unpredictable) environmental changes. The sex roles that females and males adopt within their populations can vary greatly in response to the prevalent mating system. Based on how cognition determines these grossly divergent sex roles, different selection pressures could possibly shape the (progressive) evolution of cognitive abilities, suggesting the potential to induce sexual dimorphisms in superior cognitive abilities. Associations between an individual’s mating success, sexual traits and its cognitive abilities have been found consistently across vertebrate species and taxa, providing evidence that sexual selection may well shape the supporting cognitive prerequisites. Yet, while superior cognitive abilities provide benefits such as higher feeding success, improved antipredator behavior, or more favorable mate choice, they also claim costs such as higher energy levels and metabolic rates, which in turn may reduce fecundity, growth, or immune response. There is compelling evidence in a variety of vertebrate taxa that females appear to prefer skilled problem-solver males, i.e., they prefer those that appear to have better cognitive abilities. Consequently, cognition is also likely to have substantial effects on sexual selection processes. How the choosing sex assesses the cognitive abilities of potential mates has not been explored conclusively yet. Do cognitive skills guide an individual’s mate choice and does learning change an individual’s mate choice decisions? How and to which extent do individuals use their own cognitive skills to assess those of their conspecifics when choosing a mate? How does an individual’s role within a mating system influence the choice of the choosing sex in this context? Drawing on several examples from the vertebrate world, this review aims to elucidate various aspects associated with cognitive sex differences, the different roles of males and females in social and sexual interactions, and the potential influence of cognition on mate choice decisions. Finally, future perspectives aim to identify ways to answer the central question of how the triad of sex, cognition, and mate choice interacts.

4. Sex roles and stereotypes

2018 ◽  
pp. 52-68
Author(s):  
Leigh W. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Mating Competition ◽  
Characteristic Behaviour ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Female Roles

‘Sex roles and stereotypes’ examines the notion, implicit in many of the original ideas about sexual selection, that males and females have natural ‘roles’ with characteristic behaviour associated with each sex. It also explores further the reasons behind deviations from the ‘typical’ sex roles in mate choice and in mating competition. Are there ‘standard’ male and female roles in both humans and other animal species? One version of sex roles holds that males are generally dominant and females submissive, stemming from the way that sexual selection favours different behaviours in each sex. This could mean that sexual selection dictates particular behaviours in males and females. But in fact, sexual behaviour is extraordinarily varied in nature.

Within-season variation in sexual selection in a fish with dynamic sex roles

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (14) ◽  
pp. 3587-3599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Wacker ◽  
Trond Amundsen ◽  
Elisabet Forsgren ◽  
Kenyon B. Mobley
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Sex Roles

scholarly journals Sex roles, parental care and offspring growth in two contrasting coucal species

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 160463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Goymann ◽  
Ignas Safari ◽  
Christina Muck ◽  
Ingrid Schwabl
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Uniparental Care ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Offspring Growth ◽  
Adult Sex Ratio

The decision to provide parental care is often associated with trade-offs, because resources allocated to parental care typically cannot be invested in self-maintenance or mating. In most animals, females provide more parental care than males, but the reason for this pattern is still debated in evolutionary ecology. To better understand sex differences in parental care and its consequences, we need to study closely related species where the sexes differ in offspring care. We investigated parental care in relation to offspring growth in two closely related coucal species that fundamentally differ in sex roles and parental care, but live in the same food-rich habitat with a benign climate and have a similar breeding phenology. Incubation patterns differed and uniparental male black coucals fed their offspring two times more often than female and male white-browed coucals combined. Also, white-browed coucals had more ‘off-times’ than male black coucals, during which they perched and preened. However, these differences in parental care were not reflected in offspring growth, probably because white-browed coucals fed their nestlings a larger proportion of frogs than insects. A food-rich habitat with a benign climate may be a necessary, but—perhaps unsurprisingly—is not a sufficient factor for the evolution of uniparental care. In combination with previous results (Goymann et al . 2015 J. Evol. Biol . 28 , 1335–1353 ( doi:10.1111/jeb.12657 )), these data suggest that white-browed coucals may cooperate in parental care, because they lack opportunities to become polygamous rather than because both parents were needed to successfully raise all offspring. Our case study supports recent theory suggesting that permissive environmental conditions in combination with a particular life history may induce sexual selection in females. A positive feedback loop among sexual selection, body size and adult sex-ratio may then stabilize reversed sex roles in competition and parental care.

scholarly journals HOMAGE TO BATEMAN: SEX ROLES PREDICT SEX DIFFERENCES IN SEXUAL SELECTION

Evolution ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (7) ◽  
pp. 1926-1936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karoline Fritzsche ◽  
Göran Arnqvist
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Sex Roles

Sex-Role Reversal in the Black-Chinned Tilapia, Sarotherodon Melanotheron (RÜPpel) (Cichlidae)

Behaviour ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 132 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 861-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigal Balshine-Earn ◽  
Brendan J. Mcandrew
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Sex Role Reversal ◽  
Reproductive Rates ◽  
Sarotherodon Melanotheron

AbstractIn the animal kingdom most species follow standard sex roles: males compete more intensely for mates and females exert greater mate choice. Recent theory suggests that the direction of sexual selection is the outcome of sexual differences in potential reproductive rates (PRRs): the sex with the higher PRR will compete for mates and the sex with the lower PRR will be most selective. This study tests the theory experimentally by examining competition for mates and mate choice in the black-chinned tilapia, Sarotherodon melanotheron, a paternal mouth brooding cichlid. In this species, the PRR of males is lower than that of females. In laboratory competition trials, females were more aggressive: they bit, chased and initiated mouth fights more often than males. Dominant females were also much better at monopolising potential mates compared to dominant males. A second experiment confirmed that males were choosy for size, preferring large partners over small ones, while females did not discriminate for size. Therefore, the prediction of sex role reversal (competitive females and discriminating males) is confirmed.

scholarly journals Darwinian sex roles confirmed across the animal kingdom

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. e1500983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Janicke ◽  
Ines K. Häderer ◽  
Marc J. Lajeunesse ◽  
Nils Anthes
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Female Behavior ◽  
Selection Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Forces ◽  
Sexual Selection Theory

Since Darwin’s conception of sexual selection theory, scientists have struggled to identify the evolutionary forces underlying the pervasive differences between male and female behavior, morphology, and physiology. The Darwin-Bateman paradigm predicts that anisogamy imposes stronger sexual selection on males, which, in turn, drives the evolution of conventional sex roles in terms of female-biased parental care and male-biased sexual dimorphism. Although this paradigm forms the cornerstone of modern sexual selection theory, it still remains untested across the animal tree of life. This lack of evidence has promoted the rise of alternative hypotheses arguing that sex differences are entirely driven by environmental factors or chance. We demonstrate that, across the animal kingdom, sexual selection, as captured by standard Bateman metrics, is indeed stronger in males than in females and that it is evolutionarily tied to sex biases in parental care and sexual dimorphism. Our findings provide the first comprehensive evidence that Darwin’s concept of conventional sex roles is accurate and refute recent criticism of sexual selection theory.

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