This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1086/727968. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
Downloads
Authors
Abstract
Anisogamy has evolved in most sexually reproducing multicellular organisms allowing the definition of the male and female sexes, producing small and large gametes. Anisogamy, as the initial sexual dimorphism, is a good starting point to understand the evolution of further sexual dimorphisms. For instance, it is generally accepted that anisogamy sets the stage for more intense mating competition in males than in females. We argue that this idea stems from a restrictive assumption on the conditions under which anisogamy evolved in the first place: the absence of sperm limitation (assuming that all female gametes are fertilized). Here, we relax this assumption and present a model that considers the coevolution of gamete size with a mating competition trait, starting in a population without dimorphism. We vary gamete density to produce different scenarios of gamete limitation. We show that, while at high gamete density the evolution of anisogamy always results in male investment in competition, gamete limitation at intermediate gamete densities allows for either females or males to invest more into mating competition. Our results thus suggest that anisogamy does not always promote mating competition among males. The conditions under which anisogamy evolves matter, as well as the competition trait.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2H89F
Subjects
Life Sciences
Keywords
anisogamy, mating competition, gamete motility, gamete limitation, adaptive dynamics, sexual selection
Dates
Published: 2023-10-18 04:44
Last Updated: 2023-10-18 11:44
Older Versions
License
CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Additional Metadata
Language:
English
Data and Code Availability Statement:
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0rxwdbrzs
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.