Sensitive periods during the development and expression of vertebrate sexual signals: A systematic review.

ABSTRACT: Many sexually selected traits exhibit phenotypic plasticity. Despite a growing appreciation for the ecological context in which sexual selection occurs, and for the role of plasticity in shaping traits associated with local adaptation and divergence, there is an important gap in knowledge about the onset and duration of plasticity in sexual trait expression. Integrating this temporal dimension of plasticity into models of sexual selection informs our understanding of the information conveyed by sexual traits and our predictions related to trait evolution, and is critical in this time of unprecedented and rapid environmental change. We conducted a systematic review of 869 studies to ask how trait modalities (e.g., visual and chemical) relate to the onset and duration of plasticity in verteb

SUBMITTER: McDermott MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8571593 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature