Week 13- Sexual Selection

What is sexual selection and how is it related to natural selection? First, let us start off with defininf sexual selection. Sexual selection is when there are individuals in a species competeing for a mate, this can be genuine competitions or specific traits. Now, this is solely focused on attraction, not the ability to survive. However, you would hope that it would be related to both. Sexual selection relates to natural selection in a way such that these processes further evolution of traits in the populations. The focus of these differ. Natural selection leads to the organism's increased survival and their success at reproducing. Alternatively, sexual selection is a game of which organism has the favorable trait for potential mates. Why are the males of a species typically the ones on which sexual selection acts most obviously? There is a simple response, males invest more than females typically do in species. Sperm costs lest to produce, and species that have internal fertilization, and gestational periods may cause females to invest significantly more into producing offspring. Thus, males need to compete to show they are the best for such an investment. An example of this may be seen in a species like the Mallards of waterfowl species. The males have very distinct coloring and the females are brown. The males who are seen as more desireable are more likely to mate ultimately leading to the ability of attracting a mate outweighing the potential for attracting a predator.