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THE EVOLUTION OF COSTLY MATE PREFERENCES II. THE “HANDICAP” PRINCIPLE
Author(s) -
Iwasa Yoh,
Pomiankowski Andrew,
Nee Sean
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1991.tb02646.x
Subject(s) - biology , coevolution , preference , mating , mutation , character (mathematics) , assortative mating , variation (astronomy) , mating preferences , mate choice , evolutionary biology , genetics , microeconomics , economics , mathematics , astrophysics , geometry , physics , gene
We use a general additive quantitative genetic model to study the evolution of costly female mate choice by the “handicap” principle. Two necessary conditions must be satisfied for costly preference to evolve. The conditions are (i) biased mutation pressure on viability and (ii) a direct relationship between the degree of expression of the male mating character and viability. These two conditions explain the success and failure of previous models of the “handicap” principle. Our model also applies to other sources of fitness variation like migration and host‐parasite coevolution, which cause effects equivalent to biased mutation.