Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments

Sara M. Clifton; Rosemary I. Braun; Daniel M. Abrams

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.1970

Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments

Sara M. Clifton^*, Rosemary I. Braun, Daniel M. Abrams

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Species spanning the animal kingdom have evolved extravagant and costly ornaments to attract mating partners. Zahavi’s handicap principle offers an elegant explanation for this: ornaments signal individual quality, and must be costly to ensure honest signalling, making mate selection more efficient. Here, we incorporate the assumptions of the handicap principle into a mathematical model and show that they are sufficient to explain the heretofore puzzling observation of bimodally distributed ornament sizes in a variety of species.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	20161970
Journal	Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume	283
Issue number	1843
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1970
State	Published - Nov 30 2016

Keywords

Competition
Evolution
Handicap principle
Natural selection
Ornament
Sexual selection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General Environmental Science
General Immunology and Microbiology
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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10.1098/rspb.2016.1970

Cite this

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AU - Braun, Rosemary I.

AU - Abrams, Daniel M.

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AB - Species spanning the animal kingdom have evolved extravagant and costly ornaments to attract mating partners. Zahavi’s handicap principle offers an elegant explanation for this: ornaments signal individual quality, and must be costly to ensure honest signalling, making mate selection more efficient. Here, we incorporate the assumptions of the handicap principle into a mathematical model and show that they are sufficient to explain the heretofore puzzling observation of bimodally distributed ornament sizes in a variety of species.

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KW - Ornament

KW - Sexual selection

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Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Supplementary material from "Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments"

All ornament data from the manuscript “Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments” presented in comma-separated-value (CSV) format.

Cite this

Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Datasets

Supplementary material from "Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments"

All ornament data from the manuscript “Handicap principle implies emergence of dimorphic ornaments” presented in comma-separated-value (CSV) format.

Cite this