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Abstract Elaborate, sexually dimorphic traits are widely thought to evolve under sexual selection through female preference, male–male competition, or both. The orangethroat darter (Etheostoma spectabile) is a sexually dichromatic fish in which females exhibit no preferences for male size or coloration. We tested whether these traits affect individual reproductive success inE. spectabilewhen multiple males are allowed to freely compete for a female. The quality and quantity of male coloration were associated with greater success in maintaining access to the female and in spawning as the primary male (first male to participate). On the other hand, sneaking behavior showed little correlation with coloration. Male breeding coloration inE. spectabilemay therefore demonstrate how intrasexual competition can be a predominant factor underlying the evolution of male ornaments.
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Program of the 87th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists
Across taxa, sexually selected traits are more variable in the target sex than 1) the same trait in the opposite sex or 2) non-sexually selected traits, likely due to their condition-dependent expression. In humans, males show greater variability in certain cognitive abilities and brain structures that 1) may facilitate intra- or intersexual competition and 2) are greater/larger in males on average, suggesting these traits may also have been subject to sexual selection. This study investigates sex differences in brain structure variability in chimpanzees. Although male chimpanzees exhibit strong intrasexual competition, reproductive skew is reduced by female mate choice and male coercion. In vivo MRI scans were collected from 226 (135F/91M) individuals and surface areas were calculated for 25 cortical sulci. Outliers for each sex and sulcus were removed prior to analysis. We measured sex differences in variability by calculating the ratio of male-to-female standard deviations of MCMCglmm residuals, controlling for age, rearing condition, scanner type, and kinship. We tested for significant sex differences through permutation. We find that males are significantly more variable at the cingulate (ratio=1.18;p=0.043), middle-frontal (ratio=1.36;p=0.001), occipital-lateral (ratio=1.20;p=0.029), occipital- temporal-marginal (ratio=1.8;p=0.006), superior-temporal (ratio=1.36;p<0.001), subcentral-posterior (ratio=1.62;p=0.033), and superior-parietal (ratio=1.21;p=0.028) sulci. These regions are associated with social perception, face recognition, and motion prediction. Females are more variable at the medio-parietal-occipital sulcus (ratio=0.78;p=0.009), a region associated with planning. This is the first study to demonstrate greater male variability in brain structure in a nonhuman primate species, and suggests sexual selection may lead to greater variability in male cognition across taxa.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1752393
- PAR ID:
- 10112676
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Journal of Physical Anthropology
- Volume:
- 165
- Issue:
- supplement S66
- ISSN:
- 0002-9483
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 312
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23489
