Meeting Abstract

63.5  Wednesday, Jan. 6  Correlational selection on sexual signal size and performance in lizards IRSCHICK, Duncan/J; University of Massachusetts at Amherst irschick@bio.umass.edu

Although many researchers have studied natural and sexual selection, relatively few have studied correlational selection, particularly in regards to sexual traits and performance. Recent research has shown that many sexual traits in animals show strong relationships with performance traits that are important in the sexual selection process. I studied survival selection on both a classic sexual signal (the anole dewlap) and bite force, a trait that is linked with dewlap size in territorial anole lizards. As a study system, I examined the common and territorial brown anole lizard (Anolis sagrei) on the small island of South Bimini Island, Bahamas. I found that there was significant selection on bite force alone, and also on the interaction between bite force and dewlap area. In particular, survival selection favored those adult males (but not females) that had a combination of large dewlaps and high bite forces. By contrast, there was no significant selection on dewlap size alone. In short, only by examining the interrelationship between sexual traits and performance can one fully understand how selection operates on sexual traits.