Meeting Abstract
Species with high annual reproductive effort tend to have low annual survival, whereas those with low reproductive effort have high survival. However, most lineages exhibit considerable interspecific variation about the axis that defines this life-history tradeoff, with some exhibiting relatively higher (and others relatively lower) survival than predicted by their level of reproductive effort. Though often treated as error variance, one alternative possibility is that this residual variance is actually the signal of unresolved genomic conflict over divergent life-history strategies in males and females. To indirectly test the role that sex-specific selection in males may play in constraining life-history evolution in females, we used comparative phylogenetic analysis of life-history data from 58 lizard species, and considered the degree of sexual size dimorphism as a proxy for the extent of intralocus sexual conflict. In accordance with the basic predictions of life-history theory, we found a negative relationship between female reproductive effort and survival. Additionally species with larger body size had higher annual survival rates. When controlling for reproductive effort and body size, we found no evidence for intralocus sexual conflict as a constraint on the evolution of female life-history.
