evolutionary arms race between the sexes sexual conflict

'Males of most animal species benefit from mating often with as many partners as possible while females, who are already mated, lose from mating too much. What is best for one sex is rarely best for the other, leading to a range of sexual conflicts, says Rowe.

The key to their research lies in the fact that males and females play very different roles in reproduction. These elaborate traits in males have traditionally been explained as evolutionary consequences of females searching for good fathers for their offspring.' Females, however, aren't easily impressed. 'Males are often provided with various distinct traits like the bright colours of a peacock's feathers, for example. 'Males and females of most animal species look and behave very differently,' says Rowe. His antennae to grasp the female near the eye during the pre-matingįull size image is available through contact The male antennae (on the right) is far larger than the female's.įor this species of water strider (Rheumatobates rileyi), the male uses Photo credit: Locke Rowe of the University of Toronto Professors Locke Rowe of the University of Toronto's zoology department and Goran Arnqvist of the University of Uppsala in Sweden offer a new and quite different look at the fundamental conflicts of interest between the sexes. 14 issue of Nature, unveils for the first time a sexual 'arms race' in a group of insects - the water strider. New research by evolutionary biologists from the University of Toronto and the University of Uppsala in Sweden confirm earlier beliefs that an evolutionary 'battle of the sexes' can lead to a biological arms race between males and females. Boxes of chocolate and Valentine cards won't get you far in the animal world where courting is considerably tougher than it is for humans.

Evolutionary arms race between the sexes sexual conflict