Search results for "Mating preferences"
showing 9 items of 9 documents
HERITABILITIES OF DOMINANCE-RELATED TRAITS IN MALE BANK VOLES (CLETHRIONOMYS GLAREOLUS)
1998
A number of studies have shown that in several animal species females prefer dominant males as mating partners, but fewer attempts have been made to measure possible indirect benefits of this choice. One reason for this may be that, even though dominance is a widely used concept, the definition of dominance still remains controversial. Furthermore, defining and measuring the heritability of social behaviors is problematic because they are not individual traits but, by definition, involve interactions between at least two individuals. In this study we estimated heritabilities and coefficients of additive genetic variances (CVA) for male traits that are closely associated with dominance and f…
Size-assortative pairing in Gammarus pulex (Crustacea: Amphipoda): a test of the prudent choice hypothesis.
2010
6 pages; International audience; Positive assortative mating is a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this reproductive pattern in natural populations, but growing evidence suggests that assortative mating most often results from sexual mating preferences. Recently, conditiondependent mate choice in the face of costly competition for mates has been proposed to explain assortative mating in natural populations. Variation in competitive ability may generate variation in both the strength and the direction of mate preference, resulting in assortative mating with respect to individual quality if low-quality competitors are less choosy, o…
Assortative mating by size without a size-based preference: the female-sooner norm as a mate-guarding criterion.
2013
7 pages; International audience; The study of size-assortative mating, or homogamy, is of great importance in speciation and sexual selection. However, the proximate mechanisms that lead to such patterns are poorly understood. Homogamy is often thought to come from a directional preference for larger mates. However, many constraints affect mating preferences and understanding the causes of size assortment requires a precise evaluation of the pair formation mechanism. Mate-guarding crustaceans are a model group for the study of homogamy. Males guard females until moult and reproduction. They are also unable to hold a female during their own moult and tend to pair with females closer to moult…
Mate preferences in Argentinean transgender people
2018
Transgender people provide a unique opportunity to examine the effect of biological sex versus gender identity on mating preferences. This study aimed at identifying the mate characteristics that are most and least valued by transgender people and at examining to what extent their biological sex or their gender identity determined their mate preferences. A convenience sample of 134 male‐to‐female (MTF) and 94 female‐to‐male (FTM) individuals from Argentina rated Buss's list of 18 mate attributes. Compared to FTM, MTF individuals placed significantly more emphasis on attractiveness and socioeconomic status, whereas FTM, more than MTF individuals, valued partners with a dependable character. …
A Chronic Lack of Perceived Personal Control Increases Women and Men’s Self-Reported Preference for High-Status Characteristics When Selecting Romant…
2021
The question what people desire in their romantic partner has hitherto been dominated by a focus on gender. It has been repeatedly found that, when asked what they find important in selecting a partner, women indicate that they find status more important compared to men. Across five studies, we move beyond gender and base ourselves on general theories of control deprivation to test the effect of differences in perceived personal control on stated partner preferences. We find that low-control people—both women and men—value characteristics associated with status more in romantic partners at the expense of other desirable traits (Study 1a and 1b). Furthermore, in simulated dating settings, l…
Offspring performance is linked to parental identity and male breeding ornamentation in whitefish
2009
The ‘good genes’ hypothesis predicts that males advertise their quality with different sexual ornaments and that females are able to recognize the genetic quality of males by evaluating these characteristics. In the present study, we investigated the parental effects on offspring performance (feeding and swimming ability of newly-hatched larvae) and examined whether male ornamentation indicates offspring success in performance trials of whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus Linnaeus). Offspring first-feeding success had a strong paternal effect and it was also positively correlated with the size of male breeding tubercles, indicating that breeding ornamentation of males can function as an honest i…
Females tend to prefer genetically similar mates in an island population of house sparrows.
2014
11 pages; International audience; BACKGROUND: It is often proposed that females should select genetically dissimilar mates to maximize offspring genetic diversity and avoid inbreeding. Several recent studies have provided mixed evidence, however, and in some instances females seem to prefer genetically similar males. A preference for genetically similar mates can be adaptive if outbreeding depression is more harmful than inbreeding depression or if females gain inclusive fitness benefits by mating with close kin. Here, we investigated genetic compatibility and mating patterns in an insular population of house sparrow (Passer domesticus), over a three-year period, using 12 microsatellite mar…
Personality may confound common measures of mate-choice.
2011
5 pages; International audience; The measurement of female mating preferences is central to the study of the evolution of male ornaments. Although several different methods have been developed to assess sexual preference in some standardized way, the most commonly used procedure consists of recording female spatial association with different males presented simultaneously. Sexual preference is then inferred from time spent in front of each male. However, the extent to which the measurement of female mate-choice is related to exploration tendencies has not been addressed so far. In the present study we assessed the influence of variation in exploration tendencies, a trait closely associated …
Review paper: Ecological genetics of Brachionus sympatric sibling species
1998
In this paper we review previous studies on sympatric Brachionus populations in Torreblanca Marsh as a model of evolutionary and ecological relationships between closely related species. The marsh is a wetland on the Mediterranean coast of Spain with high spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Allozyme and morphometric analysis showed that Brachionus group plicatilis (formerly, Brachionus plicatilis and currently split into B. plicatilis and B. rotundiformis) was composed of three groups of genotypes with no evidence of gene flow between them (B. plicatilis, B. rotundiformis SM and B. rotundiformis SS). Correlations between seasonal and spatial distributions, on one hand, and temperature and s…