JONES, Adam; Georgia Institute of Technology: Validation of Bateman’s principles: Comparative evidence from taxa with conventional and reversed sex roles

With the advent of molecular techniques, we can now measure mating systems and the intensity of sexual selection in natural population with unprecedented detail. Widespread adoption of a standard approach to the statistical characterization of mating systems would facilitate our understanding of the causes and consequences of mating system evolution through comparative study. However, no such consensus method has emerged. Here I show that methods derived from Bateman’s principles accurately represent the nature of sexual selection in a newt with conventional sex roles as well as in a pipefish with reversed sex roles. In fact, these are the only methods for the characterization of mating systems with explicit ties to formal selection theory. Thus, a modern interpretation of Bateman’s principles provides a potential consensus method for the measurement of mating systems with respect to the process of sexual selection.