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Anisogamy, chance and the evolution of sex roles

Schärer, Lukas and Rowe, L. and Arnqvist, G.. (2012) Anisogamy, chance and the evolution of sex roles. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 27 (5). pp. 260-264.

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Abstract

Recently, several authors have challenged the view that anisogamy, the defining feature of the sexes, is an important determinant of the evolution of sex roles. Sex roles are instead suggested to result from chance, or from non-heritable differences in life histories of females and males. Here, we take issue with these ideas. We note (i) that random processes alone cannot cause consistent differences between the sexes, and (ii) that those differences between the sexes in life histories that affect the sex roles are themselves the result of sex-specific selection that can ultimately be traced back to anisogamy. To understand sex roles, we should ask how environmental variation and female-male coevolution cause variation in sex-specific selection in the light of anisogamy.
Faculties and Departments:05 Faculty of Science > Departement Umweltwissenschaften > Integrative Biologie > Evolutionary Biology (Schärer)
UniBasel Contributors:Schärer, Lukas
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0169-5347
e-ISSN:1872-8383
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
Identification Number:
edoc DOI:
Last Modified:05 Oct 2017 11:45
Deposited On:01 Feb 2013 08:45

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