Title of Document: VARIABLE FEMALE PREFERENCES AND THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX MALE DISPLAYS IN THE SATIN BOWERBIRD (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) Seth William Coleman, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Directed By: Dr. Gerald Borgia, Professor Behavior, Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Program Department of Biology Models of sexual selection suggest that females benefit from assessing male display traits t...

In this article we examine preferences in mate choice within the broader context of the human mating system. Specifically, we discuss the consequences of mate preferences for the processes of assortative mating and sexual selection. In Study 1 (N = 184) we document (a) the mate characteristics that are consensually more and less desired, (b) the mate characteristics that show strong sex differe...

The past two decades have seen extensive growth of sexual selection research. Theoretical and empirical work has clarified many components of pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection, such as aggressive competition, mate choice, sperm utilization and sexual conflict. Genetic mechanisms of mate choice evolution have been less amenable to empirical testing, but molecular genetic analyses can now ...

Traditional views of sexual selection assumed that male-male competition and female mate choice work in harmony, selecting upon the same traits in the same direction. However, we now know that this is not always the case and that these two mechanisms often impose conflicting selection on male sexual traits. Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) have been shown to be linked to both social dominance and ...

Models of sexual selection by mate choice have emphasized the evolution of sexually dimorphic costly signals, such as elaborate plumage or courtship display, in the sex exhibiting higher reproductive skew, usually males. Less well explored is the action of mutual mate choice in driving signal evolution in socially monogamous or near-monogamous populations. We present a simulation model of condi...