THE COLORS OF LIZARDS AND SEXUAL SELECTION

In a paper recently published by the scientific journal Evolution, an international team which included CIBIO-InBIO researchers Miguel Carretero and Guillem Pérez i Lanuza, investigated the intensity of sexual selection, estimated from population sex ratio, and diversity in color of Podarcis muralis, a lizard in which both males and females present different phenotypes encompassing white, yellow, orange, white-orange, and yellow-orange colors. The team analysed a sample of 116 Pyrenean populations and 5421 lizards and the obtained results, which now have been highlighted by the national media, suggested a relationship between the intensity of male competition and male color diversity.

According to Miguel Carretero “when the number of males is higher than the females, more variety of colors will show up, since this variety is dependent on direct competition”. The researcher also highlighted that this study provides another point of view into a complex evolutionary scenario possibly involving frequency-dependent selection of alternative reproductive tactics and/or complex balancing selection.

This work has made the front cover of the scientific journal Evolution – July 2017, edition.

To know more about this topic, please follow the link below:
“Cores dos machos das lagartixas-dos-muros influenciam seleção sexual” | SIC Notícias | May 12, 2017 ( Information available in Portuguese)
“Cores dos machos das lagartixas-dos-muros influenciam seleção sexual "| DN | May 12, 2017 ( Information available in Portuguese)
“Cores dos machos das lagartixas-dos-muros influenciam seleção sexual” | ZeroZero | May 12, 2017 ( Information available in Portuguese)

To read the national press release for this study, please click here.

To access the original article, please click here.