RESEARCH SHOWS THAT SEX DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL SIGNALS ARE INFLUENCED BY THE ENVIRONMENT

In a paper recently published by the scientific journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, a research team made up by current and past CIBIO-InBIO researchers, Caterina Funghi, Sandra Trigo, Ana Cristina Gomes, Marta Soares and Gonçalo Cardoso, found that, in waxbills, sex differences in bill color are influenced by changes in environmental conditions. Female bill color can change in response to variation in night temperature, reaching the same average color as males.

The article was highlighted in Science’s “Editors' Choice”, and shows that sex differences in bill colour disappear when ecological conditions are favorable to females. Results show that, rather than being genetically fixed, sex differences in animal social signals can be plastic, similarly to many sex differences in human social behavior, and suggest that studying their ecological vs. social causes provides a biological backdrop for understanding the human case as well.

To know more about this topic, please follow the link below:
"Sexual signals not so strict" | "Editor's Choice" Science | April 13, 2018

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