Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-19-2008

Publication Title

The American Naturalist

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Additional Department

Department of Computer Science

Abstract

Various evolutionary forces may shape the evolution of traits that influence the mating decisions of males and females. Phe- notypic traits that males and females use to judge the species identify of potential mates should evolve in a punctuated fashion, changing significantly at the time of speciation but changing little between speciation events. In contrast, traits experiencing sexual selection or sexually antagonistic interactions are generally expected to change continuously over time because of the directional selection pressures imposed on one sex by the actions of the other. To test these hy- potheses, we used spherical harmonic representations of the shapes of male mating structures in reconstructions of the evolutionary tempo of these structures across the history of the Enallagma dam- selfly clade. Our analyses show that the evolution of these structures is completely consistent with a punctuated model of evolutionary change and a constant evolutionary rate throughout the clade’s his- tory. In addition, no interpopulation variation in shape was detected across the range of one species. These results indicate that male mating structures in this genus are used primarily for identifying the species of potential mates and experience little or no selection from intraspecific sexual selection or sexual antagonism. The implications of these results for speciation are discussed.

DOI

10.1086/587076

Original Citation

McPeek MA, Shen L, Torrey JZ, Farid H. The tempo and mode of three-dimensional morphological evolution in male reproductive structures. Am Nat. 2008 May;171(5):E158-78. doi: 10.1086/587076. PMID: 18419524.

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