Sexual selection by the handicap mechanism

Abstract

Develops a simple haploid model of the handicap mechanism based on nonheritable variation in paternal investment, thus eliminating the problem of heritable fitness. This model produces the same evolutionary dynamics as both simple and quantitative genetic models of the handicap mechanism based on heritable fitness. If the parameters are such that Fisherian runaway selection does not occur in the null model (ie the polymorphic equilibria, which lie along the "Fisher line' are stable), then the handicap mechanism turns the Fisher line into an evolutionary trajectory uon which all other trajectories converge. This occurs because Fisher's mechanism generates no net selection on female preference when the population is on the Fisher line, so that any additional source of selection (direct or indirect) on female choice causes the population to evolve deterministically along the Fisher line. -from Author

Department(s)

Biology

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1989.tb02590.x

Publication Date

1-1-1989

Journal Title

Evolution

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