Presentation Details
| Combat vs.Courtship: Evolutionary Stasis of Courtship Signals Adam J.Warren1, H.E.Abercrombie1, OURS Team1, Stephanie M.Campos2, Anastassia P.Erudaitius3, Diana K.Hews4, Alison Ossip-Drahos5, Cristina Romero-Diaz6, José Jaime Zúñiga-Vega7, Erin C.Kelso8, Emília P.Martins1. 1School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.2Department of Biology, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA.3Life Sciences Department, San Diego City College, San Diego, CA, USA.4Department of Biology, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN, USA.5Department of Chemistry and Physical Sciences, Marian University, Indianapolis, IN, USA.6Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid Spain.7Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México Mexico.8Departament of Integrative Biology, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA |
Abstract
Animals use communicative signals in a wide range of contexts, including broadcasting individual, sex, and species identity, mediating aggressive interactions, attracting mates, and coordinating social behavior such as group foraging and parental care. In lizards, the species-typical “pushup display,” used primarily in territorial advertisement and male-male aggressive encounters, has been extensively documented with hundreds of studies detailing its structure and function over nearly 70 years. In contrast, the “shudder display” produced by males during courtship, has received far less attention and remains poorly characterized. In this study, we analyze video recordings of wild Sceloporus lizards from 10 species performing headbob displays and conduct a comprehensive literature review to quantify inter-individual and interspecific variation in the shudder display. We find that unlike pushup displays, shudder displays exhibit striking structural similarity across a broad range of lizard species. We consider the behavioral and hormonal consequences of highly repetitive signals, and discuss functional mechanisms that may underlie the evolutionary stasis observed in shudder displays.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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