Department of Biology, St Ambrose University, Davenport, IA 52803, USA.
Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Biol Lett. 2021 Feb;17(2):20200733. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0733. Epub 2021 Feb 3.
The diversity of signalling traits within and across taxa is vast and striking, prompting us to consider how novelty evolves in the context of animal communication. Sexual selection contributes to diversification, and here we endeavour to understand the initial conditions that facilitate the maintenance or elimination of new sexual signals and receiver features. New sender and receiver variants can occur through mutation, plasticity, hybridization and cultural innovation, and the initial conditions of the sender, the receiver and the environment then dictate whether a novel cue becomes a signal. New features may arise in the sender, the receiver or both simultaneously. We contend that it may be easier than assumed to evolve new sexual signals because sexual signals may be arbitrary, sexual conflict is common and receivers are capable of perceiving much more of the world than just existing sexual signals. Additionally, changes in the signalling environment can approximate both signal and receiver changes through a change in transmission characteristics of a given environment or the use of new environments. The Anthropocene has led to wide-scale disruption of the environment and may thus generate opportunity to directly observe the evolution of new signals to address questions that are beyond the reach of phylogenetic approaches.
信号特征在分类单元内和分类单元之间的多样性是巨大而显著的，这促使我们思考新颖性如何在动物交流的背景下进化。性选择有助于多样化，在这里，我们努力理解促进新的性信号和受体特征的维持或消除的初始条件。新的发送者和接收者变体可以通过突变、可塑性、杂交和文化创新产生，发送者、接收者和环境的初始条件然后决定新的线索是否成为信号。新的特征可能在发送者、接收者或两者同时出现。我们认为，进化新的性信号可能比想象的要容易，因为性信号可能是任意的，性冲突很常见，而接收者能够感知到的世界比现有的性信号要多得多。此外，信号环境的变化可以通过改变给定环境的传输特性或使用新的环境来近似信号和接收者的变化。人类世导致了环境的广泛破坏，因此可能为直接观察新信号的进化提供机会，以解决超越系统发育方法范围的问题。
