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SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE ORNAMENTATION IN SYNGNATHIDS (PIPEFISHES, SEAHORSES AND SEADRAGONS)

03 Nov 2017 - Kenyon Mobley (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany) | November 10, 2017 - 16h00 | CIBIO-InBIO’s Auditorium, Campus de Vairão
SEXUAL SELECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF FEMALE ORNAMENTATION IN SYNGNATHIDS (PIPEFISHES, SEAHORSES AND SEADRAGONS)

 

Sexual selection is a potent evolutionary force responsible for the evolution of extravagant behaviors and morphology seen in many species. Despite nearly 150 years since Darwin first proposed the theory of sexual selection, many aspects of this process are controversial and not well understood. For example, one unresolved facet of sexual selection concerns the link between individual preferences for sexually selected traits and the demonstration of selection on these traits in the wild. I will introduce the topic of sexual selection and how to measure it in wild populations of pipefishes. I will also discuss the evolution of female ornamentation in this group of fishes which shows a striking diversity rivaling those of traditional sex-role species. I will also investigate the ornament expression fecundity trade-off in the wide-bodied pipefish, Stigmatopora nigra.


Kenyon Mobley is originally from Long Island, New York, Dr. Mobley obtained his B.Sc. at Louisiana State University, M.Sc. at Georgia Southern University and a Ph.d at Texas A&M University. Dr. Mobley obtained a prestigous National Science Foundation International Research Program Grant split between NTNU Trondheim in Norway and Northern Arizona University (USA). Afterward he did a second postdoc at Umea University in Sweden. For the last six years, he's been affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, Germany as a research assoicate/postdoc/visiting scientist. Last year, he was based part of the time at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland as a Junior Lecturer. His research interests are behavior, genetics, sexual selection and speciation of fishes and he has worked with pipefishes, stickleback, gobies, and salmonids extensively.

 

[Host: Nuno Monteiro, Behavioural Ecology]

 

Image credits: Rudie Kuiter

 

 

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