Climate and ecology predict latitudinal trends in sexual selection inferred from avian mating systems.

ABSTRACT: Sexual selection, one of the central pillars of evolutionary theory, has powerful effects on organismal morphology, behaviour, and population dynamics. However, current knowledge about geographical variation in this evolutionary mechanism and its underlying drivers remains highly incomplete, in part because standardised data on the strength of sexual selection is sparse even for well-studied organisms. Here, we use information on mating systems-including the incidence of polygamy and extra-pair paternity-to estimate the intensity of sexual selection in 10,671 (>99.9%) bird species distributed worldwide. We show that avian sexual selection varies latitudinally, peaking at higher latitudes, although the gradient is reversed in the world's most sexually selected birds-specialist frugivores-wh

SUBMITTER: Barber RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11567637 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature