Latest Sexual selection Stories

Is speciation adaptive?Darwin suggested that the action of natural selection can produce new species, but 150 years after the publication of his famous book, 'On the Origin of Species', debate still continues on the mechanisms of speciation. New research finds sexual selection to greatly enlarge the scope for adaptive speciation by triggering a positive feedback between mate choice and ecological diversification that can eventually eliminate gene flow between species.By means of a...

Males have more pronounced personalities than females across a range of species "“ from humans to house sparrows "“ according to new research. Consistent personality traits, such as aggression and daring, are also more important to females when looking for a mate than they are to males. Research from the University of Exeter draws together a range of studies to reveal the role that sexual selection plays in this disparity between males and females.The study shows that in most species...

Scientists find a population of butterflies that appears to be splitting into 2 speciesBreaking up may actually not be hard to do, say scientists who've found a population of tropical butterflies that may be on its way to a split into two distinct species.The cause of this particular break-up? A shift in wing color and mate preference.In a paper published this week in the journal Science, the researchers describe the relationship between diverging color patterns in Heliconius butterflies and...

The great diversity of male sexual traits, ranging from peacock's elaborate train to formidable genitalia of male seed beetles, is the result of female choice. But why do females choose among males? In a new study published today in Current Biology, researchers from Uppsala University found no support for the theory that the female choice is connected to "good genes".The great diversity of male sexual traits, ranging from peacock's elaborate train to formidable genitalia of male...

New research shows that male suitors of a female cannibalistic spider risk facing a premature death unless they perform an adequate courtship lasting a minimum of 100 minutes. Further, the research shows that "sneaker" males can slip by and mate successfully on the courtship efforts of the hard-working first suitor.Scientists at the University of Toronto Scarborough have published a research paper titled "Female's courtship threshold allows intruding males to mate with reduced...

There may be plenty of fish in the sea but the medaka knows what it likes. A new study published in the open access journal BMC Biology shows how a single gene mutation that turns Japanese Killifish a drab grey color renders them significantly less attractive to more colorful members of the opposite sex.The medaka, found commonly in Southeast Asia, can be observed in a wide range of colors; from brown, to more uncommon orange and grey variations. Shoji Fukamachi led a team of researchers from...

Male seahorses have a clear agenda when it comes to selecting a mating partner: to increase their reproductive success. By being choosy andpreferring large females, they are likely to have more and bigger eggs, as well as bigger offspring, according to Beat Mattle and Tony Wilsonfrom the Zoological Museum at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Their findings1 have just been published online in Springer's journalBehavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.Seahorses have a unique mode of...

Adam Jones, an evolutional biologist who has studied Darwin's work for years, says that Darwin's beliefs about the choice of mates and sexual selection being beyond mere chance have been proven correctCharles Darwin wrote about it 150 years ago: animals don't pick their mates by pure chance "“ it's a process that is deliberate and involves numerous factors. After decades of examining his work, experts agree that he pretty much scored a scientific bullseye, but a very big question is,...

A Scottish study challenges longstanding expectations that men are promiscuous and women tend to be more particular when it comes to choosing a mate. Lead study author Dr. Gillian R. Brown of the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews said that in 1948, Angus J. Bateman's famous studies in fruit flies showed that males exhibit greater variance in mating success -- defined as the number of sexual partners -- and in reproductive success -- the number of offspring -- when...

A new study challenges long-standing expectations that men are promiscuous and women tend to be more particular when it comes to choosing a mate. The research, published by Cell Press in the April issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, suggests that human mating strategies are not likely to conform to a single universal pattern and provides important insights that may impact future investigations of human mating behaviors.In 1948, Angus J. Bateman's performed some now famous...