On the Origin of Species by Natural and Sexual Selection

✍ Scribed by Van Doorn, G. Sander (author);Edelaar, Pim (author);Weissing, Franz J. (author)

• Book ID: 117991805
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 367 KB
• Volume: 326
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1181661

✦ Synopsis

Local Selection of Magic Traits

Ecological interactions can favor specialization, and sexual selection can induce reproductive isolation; however, these processes are insufficient by themselves to create new species. They must act in concert and on the same set of genes.Van Doorn__et al.__(p.1704, published online 26 November; see the Perspective byMank) present a theoretical model that shows that within a larger population the evolution of mating preferences will favor sexual ornaments that indicate the degree of adaptation to the local ecological conditions, for example, the abundant song of a male bird that can obtain food easily because it has the right bill size for the seeds in that locale. Once mate choice evolves on the basis of a signal of local adaptation, natural and sexual selection will mutually enforce each other, ultimately leading to speciation.