Am Nat. 2019 Feb;193(2):E29-E40. doi: 10.1086/700698. Epub 2018 Nov 19.
The relationships between mating decisions and parental investment are central to evolution, but to date few theoretical treatments of their coevolution have been developed. Here we adopt a demographically explicit, adaptive dynamics approach to analyze the coevolution of female mating decisions and parental investment of both sexes in a self-consistent way. Our models predict that where females cannot interfere with one another's mating decisions and where they do not differ in their survival and fecundity prospects, monogamy should be rare, favored only under harsh environmental conditions, in sparse populations. However, allowing for interference or asymmetries among females leads to selection for monogamy over a much broader range of environments and demographies. Interference by paired, resident females may prevent unmated rivals from joining existing monogamous pairs, thus barring the formation of polygynous groups. Asymmetries between established, primary females and subsequently joining secondary females may increase the relative costs of early polygynous reproduction, compared to delayed monogamy for the latter. The models thus highlight different routes by which monogamy may evolve. We further track how parental investment by the sexes coevolves with female mating decisions, highlighting how sexual conflict over parental investment is both cause and effect of mating behavior.
交配决策与亲代投资之间的关系是进化的核心，但迄今为止，很少有理论研究探讨它们的共同进化。在这里，我们采用一种具有明确人口统计学意义的适应性动态方法，以自洽的方式分析雌性交配决策和亲代投资的共同进化。我们的模型预测，在雌性不能相互干涉交配决策且在生存和生育前景上没有差异的情况下，一夫一妻制应该很少见，只有在恶劣的环境条件下，在稀疏的种群中才会受到青睐。然而，允许雌性之间的干涉或不对称性会导致在更广泛的环境和人口统计学范围内选择一夫一妻制。配对的、居住的雌性的干涉可能会阻止未交配的竞争对手加入现有的一夫一妻制配对，从而阻止多配偶制群体的形成。已建立的主要雌性与随后加入的次要雌性之间的不对称性可能会增加后者早期多配偶制繁殖的相对成本，而不是延迟的一夫一妻制。因此，这些模型突出了一夫一妻制可能进化的不同途径。我们进一步跟踪了两性的亲代投资如何与雌性的交配决策共同进化，强调了性冲突对亲代投资既是交配行为的原因也是结果。
