scholarly journals Female brain size affects the assessment of male attractiveness during mate choice

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. e1601990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Corral-López ◽  
Natasha I. Bloch ◽  
Alexander Kotrschal ◽  
Wouter van der Bijl ◽  
Severine D. Buechel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Male Attractiveness ◽  
Female Brain

scholarly journals Genetic association between male attractiveness and female differential allocation

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan L Head ◽  
John Hunt ◽  
Robert Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Genetic Association ◽  
Reproductive Effort ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Acheta Domesticus ◽  
Female Size ◽  
Differential Allocation ◽  
Male Attractiveness ◽  
Analogous Manner

Differential allocation of reproductive effort towards offspring of attractive mates is a form of post-copulatory mate choice. Although differential allocation has been demonstrated in many taxa, its evolutionary implications have received little attention. Theory predicts that mate choice will lead to a positive genetic correlation between female preference and male attractiveness. This prediction has been upheld for pre-copulatory mate choice, but whether such a relationship between male attractiveness and female differential allocation exists has never been tested. Here, we show that both female pre-copulatory mate choice and post-copulatory differential allocation are genetically associated with male attractiveness in house crickets, Acheta domesticus . Daughters of attractive males mated sooner and laid more eggs when paired with larger males. These forms of mate choice are strongest in large females, suggesting that costs decrease with increasing female size. The genetic association between attractiveness and differential allocation suggests potential for differential allocation to become exaggerated by coevolutionary runaway processes in an analogous manner to pre-copulatory choice. Sexual selection is thus likely to be stronger than predicted by pre-copulatory choice alone.

scholarly journals Predator-driven brain size evolution in natural populations of Trinidadian killifish ( Rivulus hartii )

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1834) ◽  
pp. 20161075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Walsh ◽  
Whitnee Broyles ◽  
Shannon M. Beston ◽  
Stephan B. Munch
Keyword(s):  
Brain Size ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Laboratory Selection ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Female Brain ◽  
Size Evolution ◽  
Selection Experiments ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Recent Laboratory

Vertebrates exhibit extensive variation in relative brain size. It has long been assumed that this variation is the product of ecologically driven natural selection. Yet, despite more than 100 years of research, the ecological conditions that select for changes in brain size are unclear. Recent laboratory selection experiments showed that selection for larger brains is associated with increased survival in risky environments. Such results lead to the prediction that increased predation should favour increased brain size. Work on natural populations, however, foreshadows the opposite trajectory of evolution; increased predation favours increased boldness, slower learning, and may thereby select for a smaller brain. We tested the influence of predator-induced mortality on brain size evolution by quantifying brain size variation in a Trinidadian killifish, Rivulus hartii , from communities that differ in predation intensity. We observed strong genetic differences in male (but not female) brain size between fish communities; second generation laboratory-reared males from sites with predators exhibited smaller brains than Rivulus from sites in which they are the only fish present. Such trends oppose the results of recent laboratory selection experiments and are not explained by trade-offs with other components of fitness. Our results suggest that increased male brain size is favoured in less risky environments because of the fitness benefits associated with faster rates of learning and problem-solving behaviour.

scholarly journals Artificial selection on male genitalia length alters female brain size

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1843) ◽  
pp. 20161796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Séverine D. Buechel ◽  
Isobel Booksmythe ◽  
Alexander Kotrschal ◽  
Michael D. Jennions ◽  
Niclas Kolm
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Artificial Selection ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Brain Anatomy ◽  
Male Harassment ◽  
Female Brain ◽  
Eastern Mosquitofish ◽  
Specific Interests

Male harassment is a classic example of how sexual conflict over mating leads to sex-specific behavioural adaptations. Females often suffer significant costs from males attempting forced copulations, and the sexes can be in an arms race over male coercion. Yet, despite recent recognition that divergent sex-specific interests in reproduction can affect brain evolution, sexual conflict has not been addressed in this context. Here, we investigate whether artificial selection on a correlate of male success at coercion, genital length, affects brain anatomy in males and females. We analysed the brains of eastern mosquitofish ( Gambusia holbrooki ), which had been artificially selected for long or short gonopodium, thereby mimicking selection arising from differing levels of male harassment. By analogy to how prey species often have relatively larger brains than their predators, we found that female, but not male, brain size was greater following selection for a longer gonopodium. Brain subregion volumes remained unchanged. These results suggest that there is a positive genetic correlation between male gonopodium length and female brain size, which is possibly linked to increased female cognitive ability to avoid male coercion. We propose that sexual conflict is an important factor in the evolution of brain anatomy and cognitive ability.

Problem-solving males become more attractive to female budgerigars

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6423) ◽  
pp. 166-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiani Chen ◽  
Yuqi Zou ◽  
Yue-Hua Sun ◽  
Carel ten Cate
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Extractive Foraging ◽  
Male Attractiveness ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Open Question

Darwin proposed that mate choice might contribute to the evolution of cognitive abilities. An open question is whether observing the cognitive skills of an individual makes it more attractive as a mate. In this study, we demonstrated that initially less-preferred budgerigar males became preferred after females observed that these males, but not the initially preferred ones, were able to solve extractive foraging problems. This preference shift did not occur in control experiments in which females observed males with free access to food or in which females observed female demonstrators solving these extractive foraging problems. Our results suggest that direct observation of problem-solving skills increases male attractiveness and that this could contribute to the evolution of the cognitive abilities underlying such skills.

scholarly journals The influence of leg-to-body ratio, arm-to-body ratio and intra-limb ratio on male human attractiveness

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 171790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. M. Versluys ◽  
Robert A. Foley ◽  
William J. Skylark
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Weak Effect ◽  
Male Attractiveness ◽  
Weak Preference ◽  
Heterosexual Women ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Standard Deviations ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Limb Proportions

Human mate choice is influenced by limb proportions. Previous work has focused on leg-to-body ratio (LBR) as a determinant of male attractiveness and found a preference for limbs that are close to, or slightly above, the average. We investigated the influence of two other key aspects of limb morphology: arm-to-body ratio (ABR) and intra-limb ratio (IR). In three studies of heterosexual women from the USA, we tested the attractiveness of male physiques that varied in LBR, ABR and IR, using figures that ranged from −3 to +3 standard deviations from the population mean. We replicated previous work by finding that the optimally attractive LBR is approximately 0.5 standard deviations above the baseline. We also found a weak effect of IR, with evidence of a weak preference for the baseline proportions. In contrast, there was no effect of ABR on attractiveness, and no interactions between the effects of LBR, ABR and IR. Our results indicate that ABR is not an important determinant of human mate choice for this population, and that IR may exert some influence but that this is much smaller than the effects of LBR. We discuss possible reasons for these results, including the limited variability in upper limb proportions and the potentially weak fitness-signal provided by this aspect of morphology.

Conspicuous colouration of the vocal sac of a nocturnal chorusing treefrog: carotenoid-based?

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 576-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Richardson ◽  
Thierry Lengagne ◽  
Floriant Bellvert ◽  
Jean Popovici
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Immune Function ◽  
Male Quality ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Visual Cue ◽  
Male Attractiveness ◽  
Hyla Arborea ◽  
Bright Orange

AbstractIn nocturnal chorusing anurans, mate choice has long been considered to be based exclusively on the highly conspicuous male calls. However an additional visual cue, the pulsing male vocal sac, has recently been shown to increase male attractiveness. In several species, including the European treefrog Hyla arborea, this organ is characterized by a bright orange colouration. In the present study, analysis of the pigments extracted from the vocal sacs of European treefrogs revealed the colouration of these organs to be based on several pigments, including three carotenoids, which are highly costly immune function enhancing molecules. This result raises the important question as to whether the carotenoid-based colouration of the vocal sac in H. arborea could constitute an additional visual cue used by females to discriminate male quality.

scholarly journals Homosexual behaviour increases male attractiveness to females

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 20121038 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bierbach ◽  
Christian T. Jung ◽  
Simon Hornung ◽  
Bruno Streit ◽  
Martin Plath
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Reproductive Fitness ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Male Attractiveness ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Poecilia Mexicana ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Opposite Sex

Male homosexual behaviour—although found in most extant clades across the Animal Kingdom—remains a conundrum, as same-sex mating should decrease male reproductive fitness. In most species, however, males that engage in same-sex sexual behaviour also mate with females, and in theory, same-sex mating could even increase male reproductive fitness if males improve their chances of future heterosexual mating. Females regularly use social information to choose a mate; e.g. male attractiveness increases after a male has interacted sexually with a female (mate choice copying). Here, we demonstrate that males of the tropical freshwater fish Poecilia mexicana increase their attractiveness to females not only by opposite-sex, but likewise, through same-sex interactions. Hence, direct benefits for males of exhibiting homosexual behaviour may help explain its occurrence and persistence in species in which females rely on mate choice copying as one component of mate quality assessment.

scholarly journals Social fishes and single mothers: brain evolution in African cichlids

2008 ◽  
Vol 276 (1654) ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Gonzalez-Voyer ◽  
Svante Winberg ◽  
Niclas Kolm
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
Uniparental Care ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Female Brain ◽  
Care Patterns ◽  
Species Specific

As with any organ, differences in brain size—after adequate control of allometry—are assumed to be a response to selection. With over 200 species and an astonishing diversity in niche preferences and social organization, Tanganyikan cichlids present an excellent opportunity to study brain evolution. We used phylogenetic comparative analyses of sexed adults from 39 Tanganyikan cichlid species in a multiple regression framework to investigate the influence of ecology, sexual selection and parental care patterns on whole brain size, as well as to analyse sex-specific effects. First, using species-specific measures, we analysed the influence of diet, habitat, form of care (mouthbrooding or substrate guarding), care type (biparental or female only) and intensity of sexual selection on brain size, while controlling for body size. Then, we repeated the analyses for male and female brain size separately. Type of diet and care type were significantly correlated with whole brain size. Sex-specific analyses showed that female brain size correlated significantly with care type while male brain size was uncorrelated with care type. Our results suggest that more complex social interactions associated with diet select for larger brains and further that the burden of uniparental care exerts high cognitive demands on females.

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