Computational models for the evolution of female choice and male sexual ornaments

• Grant number: 15/22514-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: February 01, 2017
• End date: January 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Theoretical Ecology
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Glauco Machado
• Grantee: Danilo Germano Muniz da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The two most influential models for the evolution of female mate choice and male sexual ornaments are those proposed by Fisher and Zahavi. Despite their importance for the theoretical development in the field of sexual selection, it remains doubtful if these models really generate contrasting predictions. In addition, both models include natural and sexual selection, so that there are not clear predictions for a minimal model of the evolution of sexual preferences and ornaments, in which both traits evolve only by sexual selection. In such a model, male sexual ornaments would evolve only due to female preference, while female preference would evolve just as an indirect consequence of ornament evolution, without natural selection acting on both traits. In addition, all mathematical models available only make predictions about the evolution of one or two ornaments. Predictions about the evolution of multiple ornaments are purely verbal. In this project, we will use individual based simulations to build a minimal model of sexual selection that allows the evolution of multiple sexually selected traits in males. We will compare the predictions of this minimal model with predictions of models in which sexual selection interacts with natural selection following the propositions by Fisher and Zahavi. We will include in our model minimal, but realistic assumptions about the mate choice process. By doing so, we hope to produce a model of broad applicability with potential to generate testable hypotheses on the evolution of multiple sexual ornaments in males. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ROJAS, ANDRES; MUNIZ, DANILO G.; SOLANO-BRENES, DIEGO; MACHADO, GLAUCO. Nest-site selection in a neotropical arachnid with exclusive male care: Proximate cues and adaptive meaning. Ethology, v. 127, n. 4, JAN 2021. (19/12816-1, 15/10448-4, 15/22514-1)

ROJAS, ANDRES; SOLANO-BRENES, DIEGO; MUNIZ, DANILO G.; MACHADO, GLAUCO. Gone with the rain: negative effects of rainfall on male reproductive success in a nest-building arachnid. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY, v. 30, n. 4, p. 1145-1156, JUL-AUG 2019. (15/22514-1, 15/10448-4)

MILLAN, CRISTIANE H.; MACHADO, GLAUCO; MUNIZ, DANILO G.. Within-population variation in female mating preference affects the opportunity for sexual selection and the evolution of male traits, but things are not as simple as expected. JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, v. 33, n. 11, p. 1579-1592, NOV 2020. (15/10448-4, 15/22514-1)

PALAORO, V, ALEXANDRE; MUNIZ, DANILO G.; SANTOS, SANDRO. Harder, better, faster, stronger: Weapon size is more sexually dimorphic than weapon biomechanical components in two freshwater anomuran species. Journal of Morphology, v. 281, n. 9, JUL 2020. (16/22679-3, 15/22514-1)