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Male morphological traits are heritable but do not predict reproductive success in a sexually-dimorphic primate.

ABSTRACT: Sexual selection favours traits that increase reproductive success via increased competitive ability, attractiveness, or both. Male rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) morphological traits are likely to reflect the effects of multiple sexual selection pressures. Here, we use a quantitative genetic approach to investigate the production and maintenance of variation in male rhesus macaque morphometric traits which may be subject to sexual selection. We collected measurements of body size, canine length, and fat, from 125 male and 21 female free-ranging rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago. We also collected testis volumes from males. We used a genetic pedigree to calculate trait heritability, to investigate potential trait trade-offs, and to estimate selection gradients. We found that variation in most male morphometric traits was heritable, but found no evidence of trait trade-offs nor that traits predicted reproductive success. Our results suggest that male rhesus macaque morphometric traits are either not under selection, or are under mechanisms of sexual selection that we could not test (e.g. balancing selection). In species subject to complex interacting mechanisms of selection, measures of body size, weaponry, and testis volume may not increase reproductive success via easily-testable mechanisms such as linear directional selection.

SUBMITTER: Kimock CM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6930303 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Male morphological traits are heritable but do not predict reproductive success in a sexually-dimorphic primate.

Kimock Clare M CM Dubuc Constance C Brent Lauren J N LJN Higham James P JP

Scientific reports 20191224 1

Sexual selection favours traits that increase reproductive success via increased competitive ability, attractiveness, or both. Male rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) morphological traits are likely to reflect the effects of multiple sexual selection pressures. Here, we use a quantitative genetic approach to investigate the production and maintenance of variation in male rhesus macaque morphometric traits which may be subject to sexual selection. We collected measurements of body size, canine lengt ...[more]

PMID: 31874959

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Project description:BackgroundPelvic brooding is a form of uni-parental care, and likely evolved in parallel in two lineages of Sulawesi ricefishes. Contrary to all other ricefishes, females of pelvic brooding species do not deposit eggs at a substrate (transfer brooding), but carry them until the fry hatches. We assume that modifications reducing the costs of egg carrying are beneficial for pelvic brooding females, but likely disadvantageous in conspecific males, which might be resolved by the evolution of sexual dimorphism via sexual antagonistic selection. Thus we hypothesize that the evolution of pelvic brooding gave rise to female-specific skeletal adaptations that are shared by both pelvic brooding lineages, but are absent in conspecific males and transfer brooding species. To tackle this, we combine 3D-imaging and morphometrics to analyze skeletal adaptations to pelvic brooding.ResultsThe morphology of skeletal traits correlated with sex and brooding strategy across seven ricefish species. Pelvic brooding females have short ribs caudal of the pelvic girdle forming a ventral concavity and clearly elongated and thickened pelvic fins compared to both sexes of transfer brooding species. The ventral concavity limits the body cavity volume in female pelvic brooders. Thus body volumes are smaller compared to males in pelvic brooding species, a pattern sharply contrasted by transfer brooding species.ConclusionsWe showed in a comparative framework that highly similar, sexually dimorphic traits evolved in parallel in both lineages of pelvic brooding ricefish species. Key traits, present in all pelvic brooding females, were absent or much less pronounced in conspecific males and both sexes of transfer brooding species, indicating that they are non-beneficial or even maladaptive for ricefishes not providing extended care. We assume that the combination of ventral concavity and robust, elongated fins reduces drag of brooding females and provides protection and stability to the egg cluster. Thus ricefishes are one of the rare examples where environmental factors rather than sexual selection shaped the evolution of sexually dimorphic skeletal adaptations.

Dataset Information

Male morphological traits are heritable but do not predict reproductive success in a sexually-dimorphic primate.

Publications

Male morphological traits are heritable but do not predict reproductive success in a sexually-dimorphic primate.

Similar Datasets

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