The Role Of Dietary And Environmental Factors Affecting Sexual Selection

Adaptive radiation of different organisms have occurred throughout geological time through the filling of ecological niches. Organisms different from one another are capable of radiating greatly, as they evolve traits that allow them to thrive better in their environment. The Anolis lizards of the Caribbean islands are a great example of a single genus to have radiated not once, but multiple times through very similar mechanisms. Different populations of the Anolis phenotypically vary in their morphological traits to facilitate adaptation to particular niches. These phenotypic variations have evolved in convergence in more than one occasion, as recently discovered fossil specimens show similar patterns in morphology to modern Anolis.

The alligator is one of the largest living reptiles today. In North America, they inhabit freshwater swamps or wetlands in the south, from Texas to North Carolina. Distinguishing features include the fourth mandibular tooth, the long, broad snout, and the thick, scaly skin. Like some other reptiles, alligators have temperature-dependent sex determination, which is a non-genetic way of determining the sex ratio of offspring produced. Unlike other reptiles, alligators exhibit parental care; they nest-guard, and even offer evidence of maternal care for juveniles after hatching. Through the reviewing of multiple experiments conducted on Alligator mississippiensis, evidence is provided for the temperature-dependent mode of sexing and maternal

Sexual selection was an idea proposed by Darwin and refers to the process in which males and females attempt to maximize their chances of reproductive success. Within a species there are certain characteristics that make individuals attractive to potential mates. An example of this is in peacocks, female peacocks are attracted to males with long brightly colored tails, even though this makes them easier to be spotted by predators. This characteristic then evolves within the species due to how males with this characteristic have a higher chance of reproductive success and their characteristics being passed on to surviving offspring.

In this experiment, vestigial flies as well as wild type flies were used to create some diversity as well as test one of our hypotheses. Our hypotheses are as follows; 1) The wild type flies will have a greater relative fitness compared to the vestigial flies based on only sexual selection.  The wild type has a relative fitness of 1 since it has fully functional wings.  Vestigial Winged flies are not as sexually appealing since their wings are not functional and the wing movement is a vital part of their mating ritual.  2) The vestigial fly will have a greater relative fitness when considering both sexual and natural selection. With the presence of

More so that the smaller lizards were more probable to die off despite the the lack of natural selection, but because the larger stronger lizards in certain areas still had more access to food. the particular lizards with longer legs had the advantage because they were able to climb trees to escape storms that came and reach food better which in return wasn’t available to the rest down below. More great examples of this are humans, cheetahs, and peacocks. Evolution is in basic terms the matter of survival and reproduction. It is the process that on a regular basis shapes and molds all of life on our earth. Charles Darwin’s concepts comes down to three principles which include: There must be a difference in the individuals within the population, certain individuals must reproduce at a faster and higher rate than the others, and lastly characteristics that helped them survive must be passed on to there offspring. According to Darwin’s theories people are sexually selected. meaning all of sexual selection is all of natural selection. People preference of one sex affect the evolution of the other sex. for example the better you can dance the better fertile you are and vise versa. Dancing in many species means that the better you can dance the better you are off because the quality of dance is the symbol of being more reproductive. Many of his colleagues at the time were feeling dumb for not

There are many theories that try to explain relationships between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour. Evolutionary theory is one such theory.

This essay aims to show a comparison between the differences between both female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating strategies. It will explore the evolution of psychology that has shown reasons for human mating and how these reasons go above and beyond the general idea of physical attractiveness and love. This essay will identify how mate preferences have evolved and further identify psychological mechanisms that women have used to select their mates over the past. This essay will compare and critically discuss the differences and outline them between female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating

Darwin’s theory is in regards to natural selection and sexual selection. The gorilla is an animal that uses the two selections to determine their protection, feeding, and reproduction. First Charles Darwin described the characteristics and structures that a animal like a gorilla is born with. He states that these characters and structures will have slow changes that will be different than when they were born. Then he believes that they will have characters and structures that are trifling important. This means that although the structures and characters may look like they aren’t important, these structures and characters actually have a significant factor regarding their protection. The gorilla possess significant structures and characters that are prime for their survival. Thirdly, Darwin believes that in natural selection animals like gorillas have structures and characters that are beneficial between the young and the old. These structures and characters are what protects gorillas. They are also used to feed gorillas like the breast on a female gorilla, or the silver hair on the back of a male gorilla. Lastly, Darwin explains the greatness of sexual selection involving gorillas. He also believe that they use determining factors on what male gorilla the female gorilla chooses to reproduce with. After analyzing the quotes from Darwin’s “The Survival of the Fittest”, I will explain the quotes to some degree and use examples that the gorillas possess that are

Evolutionary biology has always interested me, specifically the mechanisms of natural selection and how species adapt to their environment. It started with my love for animals and nature when I was little. I spent my summers working with horses at a local corral, where I would ride around the surrounding wilderness areas. My favorite part about riding in the mountains was watching the change in plant and animal species as the elevation changed. It never ceased to amaze me how the alpine tree line was always so sudden. Humongous pine trees would give way to the short, shrubby plants of the alpine tundra so uniformly and noticeably. I have always wondered about the environmental conditions that cause species to distribute themselves in

Although most mammals are not monogamous why do some of them exhibit this behavior? We could address this question by looking at different examples of monogamous mammals and what genetic and environmental factors could have influenced this behavior. We can also look at what hormones could be involved in pair-bonding

AH4: That male brightness is determined by a combination of predation, geographical isolation and/or sexual selection, predicting that two of the previous hypotheses are supported.

Because of the environment an anglerfish lives in the male is always looking for a mate. Male anglerfish are always smaller than female anglerfish. They have evolved to be parasitic as they attach to the female anglerfish for nutrition. The reproduction process of anglerfish, is an interesting example of sexual dysmorphism. A male anglerfish bites into the female anglerfish with its teeth and attaches to the female. As the male’s mouth and the female’s skin weld the male loses all organs except for his testes and his vision. The male anglerfish have large noses to sense the pheromones of a female, and while they are maturing they lose their jaw teeth and their digestive systems becomes delapitated. The tissues of a male and female anglerfish fuse together when an

al. 2004, (Agosta et. al. 2004) critique the article by stating that there was not sufficient information that was provided for the evidence to claim that the horned lizards were adapting. The points Agosta et. al. 2004 thought that Young et. al. addressed was “evidence that selection has occurred on the trait in question” (Young et. al. 2004). An example of this would be when Young et. al. talked about how the horned lizards with the shorter length were least favored by selection therefore lizards with longer horns would have greater fitness (Young et. al. 2004). On the other hand, according to Agosta et. al. claim that Young et. al. failed to present three major points. The three major points are the “existence of a functional explanation for putative fitness differences associated with the trait”, “evidence for heritability of phenotype differences corresponding to trait variation”, and “knowledge of phylogeny such that putative adaptations can be shown to have originated in selective regimes in which they are currently advantageous” (Agosta et. al. 2004). Agosta et. al. thought the young et. al. lacked the information to support whether the horned lizards had adapted to the shrikes (Agosta et. al.

Sexual selection can best be described by the definition given by Darwin himself. Sexual selection is “the advantage which certain individuals have over other individuals of the same species solely in respect of reproduction” (Hosken et al, 2011). Sexual selection occurs throughout the animal kingdom, where male frogs dominate through the depth of their croak, and certain peacocks reign superior based on the colour and intricate detail on their tails. They remain superior to their lesser counterparts as they bear more admirable characteristics, from which they are chosen by females of the same species.

The concept of sexual selection within the biological processes is driven by various factors as female and male organisms rely on multiple characteristics before engaging in the process of copulation (Kunz and Uhl 2015). For example, male and female species have set parameters, within which they consider mating such as morphological attributes, locating a suitable mate, external factors, food and dietary conditions etc. (Kunz and Uhl 2015). Moreover, the conception of change over time is highly evident within mating species as their drive determines the mating patterns carried out over a span of time (Kunz and Uhl 2015). Furthermore, considering the process of mating research and experimentation was performed in Germany on two species of Dwarf spiders in order to understand how limitations