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The evolution of mate choice: a dialogue between theory and experiment
Author(s) -
Roff Derek A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/nyas.12743
Subject(s) - mate choice , preference , trait , psychology , econometrics , cognitive psychology , computer science , ecology , statistics , biology , mathematics , mating , programming language
Research on the evolution of mate choice has followed three avenues of investigation: (1) theoretical models of the evolution of preference and the preferred trait; (2) proposed models of mate choice; and (3) experiments and observations on mate choice, both in the laboratory and with free‐ranging animals. However, there has been relatively little dialogue among these three areas. Most attempts to account for observations of mate choice using theoretical mate‐choice models have focused only upon a subset of particular models and have generally failed to consider the difference between probabilistic and deterministic models. In this review, I outline the underlying reasoning of the commonly cited mate‐choice models and review the conclusions of the empirical investigations. I present a brief outline of how one might go about testing these models. It remains uncertain if, in general, mate‐choice models can be realistically analyzed. Although it is clear that females frequently discriminate among males, data also suggest that females may typically have a very limited number of males from which to choose. The extent to which female choice under natural conditions is relatively random because of limited opportunities remains an open question for the majority of species.