Digest: Sexually selected weapons: Winning the fight, but losing the war for reproduction on a changing battlefield

Digest: More than just a pretty fin: The evolution of sexual ornaments in killifish. Evolution 2021;76:184-186. [PMID: 34866178 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0]

What conditions favor the evolution of elaborate sexual ornaments? In freshwater killifishes, Sowersby et al. found that larger sexual ornaments were negatively associated with locomotive performance. Although selection clearly favored large ornamental fins in environments with fewer predators, there was no clear association between large ornamental fins and differences in life-history strategy. This finding illustrates that habitat differences in predation risk have the potential to influence the evolution of secondary sexual traits such as ornaments through natural selection.