Digest: Sexual selection and evolution of cognition in seed beetles

摘要

Sexual selection is hypothesized to be a driver of the evolution of cognitive ability. Baur et al. manipulated the strength of sexual selection in seed beetles subjected to enforced mating systems over 35 generations, and then quantified cognitive ability in males and females. Stronger sexual selection led to increased cognitive ability in males, but not females, when each performed a task requiring spatial orientation. Standing genetic variation, presumably maintained by balancing selection, is thought to have facilitated this rapid, sex-specific evolution.