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Behavioral Ecology Vol. 11 No. 3: 345-349
© 2000 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

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A novel evolutionary pattern of reversed sexual dimorphism in fairy wrens: implications for sexual selection

John P. Swaddle, Jordan Karubian and Stephen Pruett-Jones

Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, 1101 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Address correspondence to J. P. Swaddle at the Centre for Behavioural Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK. E-mail: john@swaddle.com .

Received 23 December 1998; revised 9 June 1999; accepted 26 September 1999.

Reversed sexual dimorphism (females being larger than males) occurs in several bird groups, including hawks and vultures (Accipitridae), falcons (Falconidae), sandpipers and snipe (Scolopacidae), phalaropes (Charadriidae), jacanas (Jacanidae), skuas (Stercorariidae), boobies (Sulidae), frigate birds (Fregatidae), owls (Strigiformes), cuckoos (Cuculidae), hummingbirds (Trochilidae), manakins (Pipridae), and some ratites (Struthioniformes). In most cases, reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD) is present in many traits, and hence selection has been presumed to act non-independently on several characters (Lande and Arnold, 1983Go). Hence, RSD has commonly been discussed in terms of differences in body size (Mueller, 1990Go). In this study, we report a novel pattern of RSD in fairy wrens (Maluridae), which has important evolutionary implications for the ways in which sexual dimorphism can occur and the mechanisms of sexual selection.

We examined patterns of morphological sexual dimorphism, based on published data (Rowley and Russell, 1997Go; Schodde, 1982Go) and our own measurements (described . . . [Full Text of this Article]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

REFERENCES


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