Shifts in sexual dimorphism across a mass extinction in ostracods: implications for sexual selection as a factor in extinction risk.

ABSTRACT: Sexual selection often favours investment in expensive sexual traits that help individuals compete for mates. In a rapidly changing environment, however, allocation of resources to traits related to reproduction at the expense of those related to survival may elevate extinction risk. Empirical testing of this hypothesis in the fossil record, where extinction can be directly documented, is largely lacking. The rich fossil record of cytheroid ostracods offers a unique study system in this context: the male shell is systematically more elongate than that of females, and thus the sexes can be distinguished, even in fossils. Using mixture models to identify sex clusters from size and shape variables derived from the digitized valve outlines of adult ostracods, we estimated sexual dimorphism in

SUBMITTER: Martins MJF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7482269 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature