Why being too good looking might cut your chances with females
February 15th, 2011 - 5:31 pm ICT by ANIMelbourne, Feb 15 (ANI): Traditional theory of evolution maintains that it’s the good-looking male that gets the ladies, but a new study might prove otherwise.
Research by the University of Queensland (UQ) has found there is a limit to the success of even the most desirable males in a population, reports ABC Science.
After genetically engineering flies to make them more attractive, the researchers found that they quickly increased in the population from 12 per cent to 35 per cent of the population, but levelled off after seven generations.
“We don’t know what the cost is to fruit flies. They are still able to produce offspring and live long enough, but there’s some cost we can’t see,” said Dr Katrina McGuigan.
The UQ researchers suggest an opposing force, natural selection, is at play as well, putting the brakes on sexual selection when those attractive attributes also confer some sort of disadvantage to the male.
“While these selected male flies were highly attractive, they also suffered disadvantages - likely to be lower survival rates as larvae,” said Associate Professor Mike Schwarz from the School of Biological Sciences at Flinders University in Adelaide.
“Emma Hine and her coauthors therefore seem to have found the hypothesized ‘brake’ on the limits of sexual selection.”
“It also implies that those amazing sexual displays males have, such as peacock tails, have probably in part evolved not because of sexual selection, but because of changes in the environment. There has to be a habitat shift before sexual selection can start to drive evolution,” said McGuigan.
The study appears in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)
- Charlie Sheen fires literary agent - Mar 25, 2011
- Genetic 'battle of the sexes' could be much harder to resolve: Study - Nov 05, 2010
- Flying dinosaurs 'had more elaborate mating rituals than peacocks' - Jun 29, 2010
- Being 'too sexy' can be a curse - Dec 09, 2009
- Male peacock's tail plumage and eyespots attract females for mating - Apr 28, 2011
- First clinical trials on potent new hepatitis C drug successfully completed - Sep 04, 2010
- Forget good looks, it's gut bacteria that 'influence choice of mate' - Dec 03, 2010
- Robert De Niro, Sly 'to play rival boxers in new movie' - Oct 23, 2010
- Female butterflies chase males when it's cool - Jan 07, 2011
- De Niro, Stallone to star together? - Oct 23, 2010
- Sexual deception in orchids explained - Dec 18, 2009
- New technique could help explain why bee populations are declining - Mar 22, 2011
- Silver Pheasant's sex change stuns zoo - Apr 05, 2012
- Bacteria can lead to evolution of new species - Nov 02, 2010
- Study finds temperature-sensing role in eyes' light-sensing receptor - Mar 11, 2011
Tags: abc science, biological sciences, fruit flies, hine, katrina, larvae, mcguigan, mike schwarz, national academy of sciences, natural selection, proceedings of the national academy, proceedings of the national academy of sciences, professor mike, seven generations, sexual selection, survival rates, theory of evolution, traditional theory, university of queensland, uq researchers