These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Male and female mate choice affects offspring quality in a sex-role-reversed pipefish.
    Author: Sandvik M, Rosenqvist G, Berglund A.
    Journal: Proc Biol Sci; 2000 Nov 07; 267(1458):2151-5. PubMed ID: 11413626.
    Abstract:
    Where both sexes invest substantially in offspring, both females and males should discriminate between potential partners when choosing mates. The degree of choosiness should relate to the costs of choice and to the potential benefits to be gained. We measured offspring quality from experimentally staged matings with preferred and non-preferred partners in a sex-role-reversed pipefish, Syngnathus typhle L. Here, a substantial male investment in offspring results in a lower potential reproductive rate in males than in females, and access to males limits female reproductive success rather than vice versa. Thus, males are choosier than females and females compete more intensely over mates than do males. Broods from preferred matings were superior at escaping predation, when either males or females were allowed to choose a partner. However, only 'choosing' females benefited in terms of faster-growing offspring. Our results have important implications for mate-choice research: here we show that even the more competitive and less choosy sex may contribute significantly to sexual selection through mate choice.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]