This week's #NewBooks at the library: Three more books from the NHBS January sale
- The Mandrill: A Case of Extreme Sexual Selection, a scientific monograph by Alan F. Dixson, published by Cambridge University Press.
- Plant Love: The Scandalous Truth About the Sex Life of #Plants, a popular science book on #Botany by Michael Allaby, published by Filbert Press.
- Unnatural Companions: Rethinking Our Love of Pets in an Age of Wildlife #Extinction, a difficult but necessary book by Peter Christie, published by Island Press.

#Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Primatology #Evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #SexualSelection #ConservationBiology @bookstodon

The Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Sexual Traits That Increase Mate Encounter Rates by Watts and Fitzpatrick

Read now ahead of print!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/739604

#SexualSelection #QuantitativeGenetics #EEB

Super interesting paper showing how #gelada #monkey mothers who are pregnant or with very young infants FAKE sexual swellings to kid a new harem male into mating. That might just stop the male from infanticidal killing.

Primate #female #deception GOOD! Gelada do well to manage the big risk of #primate #infanticide -- a huge cost for primate mothers.

#deceptivesexualsignals #sexualselection

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225014514?dgcid=author

Women rated the facial attractiveness and masculinity of photographs of 105 healthy and beardless men between 30 and 45 years old, and their ratings were positively correlated with age and testosterone, and negatively correlated with adiposity.

Summary: https://www.psypost.org/women-can-read-age-adiposity-and-testosterone-level-from-a-mans-face/

Original paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-025-03205-3

#Science #Psychology #SexualSelection

New meta-analysis out on the role of sexual selection in speciation!

Across the Animal kingdom, we found that stronger sexual selection is significantly (though weakly) associated with greater species richness in comparative studies — suggesting a modest role for sexual selection in speciation.

A great collaboration with Tim Janicke, Jeanne Tonnabel, Tamra Mendelson & Mike Ritchie.

https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qraf038

#Evolution #Speciation #SexualSelection #MetaAnalysis

Operational sex ratio (Ecology 🏞️)

In the evolutionary biology of sexual reproduction, operational sex ratio is the ratio of sexually competing males that are ready to mate to sexually competing females that are ready to mate, or alternatively the local ratio of fertilizable females to sexually active males at any given time. This differs from physical ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_sex_ratio

#OperationalSexRatio #Ecology #SexRatio #Reproduction #MatingSystems #SexualSelection

Male intrasexual competition (Evolutionary biology 🧬)

In ethology, male-male intrasexual competition occurs when two males of the same species compete for the opportunity to mate with a female. Sexually dimorphic traits, size, sex ratio, and the social situation may all play a role in the effects male-male competition has on the reproductive success of a male and the...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_intrasexual_competition

#MaleIntrasexualCompetition #SexualSelection #EvolutionaryBiology

Till Selection Do Us Part? Testing Sexual Selection’s Role in Speciation
Summary & Analysis by Pooja Radhakrishnan of "Evolutionary lability of sexual selection and its implications for speciation and macroevolution" by Januario et al.
https://www.amnat.org/an/newpapers/April-2025-Januario.html

#Speciation #SexualSelection #Macroevolution #EEB

Female Grey #Phalarope in summer plumage at Loch of Spiggie, Shetland in early June.

Female phalaropes famed for their reverse #sexualselection, with larger, highly decorated #females fighting over #males, setting up numerous nests and leaving males to incubate and care for chicks! They're off for a spot of #polyandry!

Photos: Hugh Harrop, Shetland Wildlife