Cotton Samuel, Small Jennifer, Pomiankowski Andrew
Department of Biology, University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK.
Curr Biol. 2006 Sep 5;16(17):R755-65. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.022.
The last decade has witnessed considerable theoretical and empirical investigation of how male sexual ornaments evolve. This strong male-biased perspective has resulted in the relative neglect of variation in female mate preferences and its consequences for ornament evolution. As sexual selection is a co-evolutionary process between males and females, ignoring variation in females overlooks a key aspect of this process. Here, we review the empirical evidence that female mate preferences, like male ornaments, are condition dependent. We show accumulating support for the hypothesis that high quality females show the strongest mate preference. Nonetheless, this is still an infant field, and we highlight areas in need of more research, both theoretical and empirical. We also examine some of the wider implications of condition-dependent mating decisions and their effect on the strength of sexual selection.
在过去十年中，对于雄性性装饰如何进化，已经有了大量的理论和实证研究。这种强烈偏向雄性的视角导致了对雌性配偶偏好的变异及其对装饰进化的影响的相对忽视。由于性选择是雄性和雌性之间的一个共同进化过程，忽视雌性的变异就忽略了这个过程的一个关键方面。在这里，我们回顾了经验证据，即雌性配偶偏好与雄性装饰一样，是依赖于条件的。我们发现越来越多的证据支持这样一个假设，即高质量的雌性表现出最强的配偶偏好。尽管如此，这仍然是一个新兴领域，我们强调了在理论和实证方面都需要更多研究的领域。我们还研究了依赖条件的交配决策的一些更广泛的影响及其对性选择强度的作用。
