Environmental Heterogeneity, Gene-By-Environment Interactions And The Reliability Of Sexual Traits As Indicators Of Mate Quality

Sexual displays such as the peacock’s tail are thought to indicate the genetic quality of males, which is why females prefer larger or brighter displays. In this paper we show, by means of a mathematical model, that the relationship between genetic quality and sexual display size might be weakened by variable environmental conditions experienced by individuals before they reach maturity.

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Filed under: Biology on December 19th, 2008