New Horizons in Sexual Selection Research

One of the most important decisions that a sexually reproducing organism must make in its lifetime is with whom shall it mate? From an evolutionary perspective, the importance of this decision is paramount: make the right choice and your offspring will continue your genetic legacy; make the wrong choice and your lineage will be at a disadvantage or worse, it may become extinct. It is this fundamental question that drives research in sexual selection since Darwin first proposed the idea in The Origin of Species (1859) and expanded on the topic in The Decent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Since Darwin’s original musings on sexual selection, the field has undergone many addendums and transformations but at the heart of the theory remains two key features proposed by Darwin, namely mate competition and mate choice. Today, sexual selection is recognized as a salient evolutionary force that often trumps natural selection and understanding the causes and consequences of sexual selection remain a vibrant, and frequently controversial, area of evolutionary biology. In this special column, we explore the current state of sexual selection research and take up several of the ongoing debates that are sure to influence the future direction studies on this topic. Contributions to this special column are inspired by a post-conference symposium entitled “Recent Developments in Sexual Selection Research: History, Trends and New Horizons” held on August 18, 2012, in Lund Sweden, following the International Society for Behavioral Ecology 2012 congress. The focus of the symposium was to take a fresh look at the state of sexual selection and discuss possible future directions of this dynamic field of research. Topics of discourse included the development and current state of sexual selection theory, the re-evaluation of the role that females play in sexual selection and broadening of sexual selection theory to include non-traditionally represented mating systems such as hermaphroditism. Contributions to this special column reflect these themes and also highlight important gaps in our knowledge as well as outlining possible future directions of research in this burgeoning field.