Category: Uncategorized

FORM OVER FUNCTION? "Sexual selection is most obvious in animals when it favours the evolution of extravagant male displays that enhance mating success at the expense of reduced viability." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

NATURAL SELECTION. “By targeting frail people of all ages, and killing them by the hundreds of thousands within an extremely short period of time, the Black Death might have represented a strong force of natural selection and removed the weakest individuals on a very broad scale within Europe.” https://lnkd.in/g2FqTm7 View in LinkedIn

DIOECIOUS WORK-AROUNDS. "Comparative studies of animal-pollinated dioecious species indicate that they commonly possess flowers that are less showy than outcrossing hermaphrodites, with small flowers that are often white, pale yellow, or green in colour. Nevertheless, the aggregation of these flowers can result in large floral displays that often show sexual dimorphism in floral and inflorescence traits." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

HIGHER MALE COSTS. "In some wind-pollinated plants, male reproductive costs may match or exceed those of females because of the high investment in nitrogen-rich pollen." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

HIGHER FEMALE COSTS. "Repeated bouts of maternal investment in fruits and seeds can lead to higher rates of mortality in females and may also exacerbate death by herbivory and disease." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

PLANT SEXUAL TRAITS. "In long-lived species, males often exceed females in vigour, shoot size, and their capacity for clonal propagation, although exceptions do occur (e.g. Populus tremuloides." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

FRUIT PLANT SEX BIAS. "This observation leads to the prediction that long-lived dioecious species that experience repeated episodes of reproduction should be more likely to develop male-biased sex ratios. Such effects may be especially strong in species with a large maternal investment in costly fleshy fruits, a common correlate of dioecy." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

SEXUAL SEGREGATION. "Many sexually dimorphic characters, including both vegetative and flowering traits, are associated with differences in the costs of reproduction, which are usually greater in females, particularly in longer-lived species. These differences can influence the frequency and distribution of females and males across resource gradients and within heterogeneous environments, causing niche differences and the spatial segregation of the sexes." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

HIGHER FEMALE MORTALITY. "The frequent occurrence of male-biased sex ratios is likely to be associated with the greater reproductive investment of females, as this commonly results in the earlier onset and more frequent flowering of males and the greater mortality of females." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn

MALE BIAS. "A recent survey of flowering sex ratios among angiosperm families revealed that about half showed significant deviations from equality, with male bias almost twice as common as female bias." https://lnkd.in/ge7JD6J View in LinkedIn