Polyandry in a marine turtle: females make the best of a bad job.

ABSTRACT: The female perspective on reproductive strategies remains one of the most active areas of debate in biology. Even though a single mating is often sufficient to satisfy the fertilization needs of most females and the act of further mating incurs costs, multiple paternity within broods or clutches is a common observation in nature. Direct or indirect advantage to females is the most popular explanation. However, the ubiquity of this explanation is being challenged by an increasing number of cases for which benefits are not evident. For the first time, we test possible fitness correlates of multiple paternity in a marine turtle, an organism that has long attracted attention in this area of research. Contrary to the wide-spread assumption that multiple mating by female marine turtles confers f

SUBMITTER: Lee PL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC404079 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature