All Articles Tagged As: sexual selection

Clues To Ancestral Origin Of Placenta Emerge In Genetics Study (4/18/2008)

Researchers have uncovered the first clues about the ancient origins of a mother's intricate lifeline to her unborn baby, the placenta, which delivers oxygen and nutrients critical to the baby's health. ...> Full Article

Loss Of Egg Yolk Genes In Mammals And The Origin Of Lactation And Placentation (3/20/2008)

Exploring the genetic changes that led mammals to feed their young via the placenta and with milk, rather then via the egg ...> Full Article

Evolution Of Male-female Differences Within A Shared Genome (1/6/2008)

One of the major components of the world's biological diversity are the differences between males and females in traits related to mating, including weapons used when competing for mates and display traits used to seduce them. Such gender differences are thought to arise because selection acts differently on each sex. The conflicting interests of males and females in reproduction are thought to be a key source of sex-specific selection on such traits. ...> Full Article

Mutant sperm guide clinicians to new diseases (12/3/2007)

Research published today in Nature Genetics shows that some rearrangements of the human genome occur more frequently than previously thought. The work is likely to lead to new identification of genes involved in disease and to improve diagnosis of genomic disease. ...> Full Article

Researchers Discover that a Handshake Could Signal High Quality Genes (11/24/2007)

Handgrip strength is an important measure of health and reproductive fitness. ...> Full Article

Should I eat the kids? When to care for, abandon, or eat your offspring (11/22/2007)

It is difficult to see how filial cannibalism, the consumption of one's own offspring, can be an adaptive evolutionary strategy. It is, however, common in many animals, and surprisingly is often coupled with parental care. ...> Full Article

Like father, like son: attractiveness is hereditary (11/21/2007)

Sexy dads produce sexy sons, in the insect world at least. While scientists already knew that specific attractive traits, from cricket choruses to peacocks' tails, are passed on to their offspring, the heritability of attractiveness as a whole is more contentious. Now, new research by the University of Exeter, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that attractiveness is hereditary. ...> Full Article

New Evidence For Female Control In Reproduction (11/21/2007)

Adding another layer of competition to the mating game, scientists are reporting possible biochemical proof that the reproductive system of female mammals can "sense" the presence of sperm and react to it by changing the uterine environment. This may be the molecular mechanism behind post-copulatory sexual selection, in which females that have mated with several partners play a role in determining which sperm fertilizes their egg. ...> Full Article

Gene In Male Fish Lures Females Into Sex (11/19/2007)

A gene has been found in male cichlid fish that evolved to lure female fish so that male cichlids can deposit sperm in the females mouths. A study in the online open access journal BMC Biology reveals that the gene is associated with egg-like markings on the fins of cichlid fishes and uncovers the evolutionary history of these markings, which are central to the success of the fishes' exotic oral mating behaviour. ...> Full Article

Simple reason helps males evolve more quickly (11/17/2007)

The observation that males evolve more quickly than females has been around since 19th century biologist Charles Darwin noted the majesty of a peacock's tail feather in comparison with the plainness of the peahen's. ...> Full Article

The bacteria can cheat on their mates (11/16/2007)

Pursuing our own short term interests by cheating on the rest of the population is not the preserve of the human race. It seems bacteria can operate in just the same way. ...> Full Article

Why Sex Chromosomes Evolve So Rapidly (10/24/2007)

In animals with separate sexes, embryos commit to becoming male or female at an early stage. Often this key decision is made by sex determination genes on the sex chromosomes. The genes involved in sexual development have changed remarkably little during evolution. In contrast, the sex determination genes and the sex chromosomes themselves are among the most rapidly changing features of the genome. ...> Full Article

Key Found To Moonlight Romance On The Reef (10/22/2007)

Researchers have discovered what could be the aphrodisiac for the biggest moonlight sex event on Earth. ...> Full Article

Three-way mating game of North American lizard found in distant European relative (10/2/2007)

An intricate three-way mating struggle first observed in a species of North American lizard has been discovered in a distant relative, the European common lizard. The two species are separated by 5,000 miles and 175 million years of evolution, yet they share behavioral and reproductive details right down to the gaudy colors of the males. ...> Full Article

New study shows that big brothers reduce fertility (9/28/2007)

Researchers have shown that having an older brother can affect an individual's fertility. The research shows that people who have an older brother produce fewer children than those born after a sister. ...> Full Article

Male voice pitch predicts reproductive success in hunter-gatherers (9/27/2007)

Researchers studied tribe that lives much as humans did 200,000 years ago ...> Full Article

Primate Sperm Competition: Speed Matters (9/26/2007)

Researchers have found evidence that supports the theory that reproductive competition during the evolution of primate species has occurred at the level of sperm cell motility. ...> Full Article

Love the one you're with: Species still have more viable offspring if they can choose their best mate, but there are ways around even poor substitutes (9/21/2007)

New research shows that when animals must choose less-than-preferred mates, females and males apparently have ways to compensate that increase the chance their offspring will survive. ...> Full Article

Study to evaluate inheritance of mitochondria for sexual selection (9/20/2007)

Researchers to investigate the effects of natural mitochondrial variation on sperm traits and sperm competitive ability. ...> Full Article

Gene determines whether male body odor smells pleasant (9/18/2007)

To many, urine smells like urine and vanilla smells like vanilla. But androstenone, a derivative of testosterone that is a potent ingredient in male body odor, can smell like either - depending on your genes. While many people ascribe a foul odor to androstenone, usually that of stale urine or strong sweat, others find the scent sweet and pleasant. Still others cannot smell it at all. ...> Full Article

Chimpanzees Share Forbidden Fruit (9/13/2007)

They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and the same could be said for female chimpanzees. Researchers studying wild chimps in West Africa have discovered that males pinch desirable fruits from local farms and orchards as a means of attracting female mates. ...> Full Article

Attack by cuckoos and cowbirds inherited from mothers (8/30/2007)

Brood parasitic birds, which place their eggs in a nest for other birds to care for, can act like an inherited disease, affecting future generations of the birds they victimize. ...> Full Article

Sex is thirst-quenching for female beetles (8/29/2007)

Female beetles mate to quench their thirst according to new research by a scientist from the University of Exeter's School of Biosciences. The males of some insect species, including certain types of beetles, moths and crickets, produce unusually large ejaculates, which in some cases can account for around 10% of their body weight. The study shows that dehydrated females can accept sexual invitations simply to get hold of the water in the seminal fluid. ...> Full Article

Females avoid incest by causing male relatives to leave home (8/19/2007)

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK and Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, Germany, have found that female hyenas avoid inbreeding with their male relatives by giving them little choice but to leave their birth group. ...> Full Article

Savanna habitat drives birds to cooperative breeding (8/18/2007)

Delaying having kids to help raise the offspring of others seems like a bad choice if you want to reproduce, but many African starlings have adopted this strategy to deal with the unpredictable climate of their savanna habitats, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell University biologists. It appears in the Aug. 21 issue of the journal Current Biology. ...> Full Article

Adaptation To Parasites Drive African Fishes Along Different Evolutionary Paths (8/18/2007)

An international team of scientists from Canada (Université Laval), the U.K. (University of Hull, Cardiff University) and Spain (Doňana Biological Station), have discovered that a pair of closely related species of East African cichlid fishes -- a group of fish whose diversity comprising hundreds of species has puzzled evolutionary biologists for decades -- evolved divergent immune gene adaptations which might explain why they do not interbreed, despite living side by side. ...> Full Article

Facial Attraction: Choice Of Sexual Partner Shaped The Human Face (8/17/2007)

Men with large jaws, flaring cheeks and large eyebrows are sexy, at least in the eyes of our ancestors, researchers at the Natural History Museum have discovered. Facial attractiveness played a major role in shaping human evolution, as studies on our fossil ancestors have shown our choice of sexual partner has shaped the human face. ...> Full Article

Parents Seeking Sex Abandon 1 In 3 Offspring (7/31/2007)

The eggs of the penduline tit Remiz pendulinus are frequently abandoned as both parents go in search of new sexual conquests, a study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology has found. ...> Full Article

Queen Honeybees Promiscuity Produces More Productive Colonies (7/22/2007)

Why do queen honeybees mate with dozens of males? Does their extreme promiscuity, perhaps, serve a purpose? ...> Full Article

Arctive Foxes Once Thought To Be Monogamous Now Shown To Sleep Around (7/18/2007)

- Bees do it, chimps do it... Now it seems Arctic foxes do it, too. New research looking at the DNA fingerprints of canids in the Far North has revealed that foxes once thought to be monogamous are in fact quite frisky. ...> Full Article

Study Shows Social Amoeba's Association With Kin Controls Single-Celled Cheaters (7/10/2007)

New research from Rice University shows how cooperative single-celled amoebae rely on family ties to keep cheaters from undermining the health of their colonies. The research appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in May. ...> Full Article

How Fish Punish 'Queue Jumpers' (6/30/2007)

Fish use the threat of punishment to keep would-be jumpers in the mating queue firmly in line and the social order stable, a new study led by Australian marine scientists has found. ...> Full Article

Study Shows Successful Fathers Have Less Successful Daughters (6/30/2007)

he strongest and fittest of a species might be expected to produce the best offspring, but this is not always the case, researchers at the University have found. ...> Full Article

Daddies' Girls Choose Men Who Look Like Their Fathers (6/25/2007)

Women who enjoy good childhood relationships with their fathers select partners who resemble their dads research suggests. ...> Full Article

Another Sexual Attraction Is Possible (6/24/2007)

The coming summer vibrates with expressions of insect love and desire. The cicada's songs or the butterflies' bright colours are examples of how an emitting sex attracts conspecific members of the responding sex. Moth odours (pheromones), though less conspicuous for us humans, are also signals by which females guide males towards them, even on the darkest nights. Such mating recognition systems tend to be very specific, hence they are thought to play a major role in the evolution of mating barriers and in the formation of new species. ...> Full Article

Why Starling Females Cheat (6/21/2007)

While humans stray from their mates for any number of reasons, superb starling females appear to stray for the sake of their chicks, according to recent Cornell research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. ...> Full Article

Genetic Diversity Increases Horn Size And Reproductive Success (6/9/2007)

Size matters. At least, it does to an alpine ibex. ...> Full Article

Secret Of A Long Life And Sex Appeal? (5/11/2007)

Researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Exeter have found that eating certain plant substances can slow down the rate of aging. ...> Full Article

Scientists Explain Why We Vary In Attractiveness (4/17/2007)

Newcastle University researchers believe they have solved a mystery that has puzzled evolutionary scientists for years ... if 'good' genes spread through the population, why are individuals so different? ...> Full Article