Dual function and associated costs of a highly exaggerated trait in a cichlid fishстатья из журнала
Аннотация: Abstract Exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics are apparently costly and seem to defy natural selection. This conundrum promoted the theory of sexual selection. Accordingly, exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics might be ornaments on which female choice is based and/or armaments used during male–male competition. Males of many cichlid fish species, including the adaptive radiation of Nicaraguan Midas cichlids, develop a highly exaggerated nuchal hump, which is thought to be a sexually selected trait. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of behavioral assays in F2 hybrids obtained from crossing a species with a relatively small hump and one with an exaggerated hump. Mate‐choice experiments showed a clear female preference for males with large humps. In an open‐choice experiment with limited territories, couples including large humped males were more successful in acquiring these territories. Therefore, nuchal humps appear to serve dual functions as an ornament for attracting mates and as an armament for direct contest with rivals. Although being beneficial in terms of sexual selection, this trait also imposes fitness costs on males possessing disproportionally large nuchal humps since they exhibit decreased endurance and increased energetic costs when swimming. We conclude that these costs illustrate trade‐offs associated with large hump size between sexual and natural selection, which causes the latter to limit further exaggeration of this spectacular male trait.
Год издания: 2021
Авторы: Sina J. Rometsch, Julián Torres‐Dowdall, Gonzalo Machado‐Schiaffino, Nidal Karagic, Axel Meyer
Издательство: Wiley
Источник: Ecology and Evolution
Ключевые слова: Animal Behavior and Reproduction, Amphibian and Reptile Biology, Plant and animal studies
Другие ссылки: Ecology and Evolution (PDF)
Ecology and Evolution (HTML)
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (HTML)
KOPS (University of Konstanz) (PDF)
KOPS (University of Konstanz) (HTML)
PubMed Central (HTML)
PubMed (HTML)
Ecology and Evolution (HTML)
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (HTML)
KOPS (University of Konstanz) (PDF)
KOPS (University of Konstanz) (HTML)
PubMed Central (HTML)
PubMed (HTML)
Открытый доступ: gold
Том: 11
Выпуск: 23
Страницы: 17496–17508