Sexual Selection in Primates

About this book

Provides the first comprehensive summary of the various forms of sexual communication and behaviour, and the consequences of interaction between the sexes. Topics include sex roles, sexual dimorphism in weapons, ornaments and armaments, sex ratios, sex differences in behaviour and development, mate choice, sexual conflict, sex-specific life history strategies, sperm competition and infanticide. The outcome of the evolutionary struggle between the sexes, the flexibility of roles and the leverage of females are also emphasised.

Contents

List of contributors; Foreword Robert L. Trivers; Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Sexual selection in primates: review and selective preview Peter M. Kappeler and Carel P. van Schaik; 2. What is sexual selection? Tim H. Clutton-Brock; 3. Sex roles, contests for the control of reproduction and sexual selection Patricia Adair Gowaty; Part II. Sexual Signals: Substrates and Function: 4. Sexual selection and communication Charles T. Snowdon; 5. Sexual selection and exaggerated sexual swellings of female primates Dietmar P. Zinner, Charles L. Nunn, Carel P. van Schaik and Peter M. Kappeler; 6. Female multiple mating and genetic benefits in humans: investigations of design Steven W. Gangestad and Randy Thornhill; Part III. Sexual Selection in Action: 7. Sexual selection, behaviour and sexually transmitted diseases Charles L. Nunn and Sonia M. Altizer; 8. Mating conflict in primates: infanticide, sexual harassment and female sexuality Carel P. van Schaik, Gauri R. Pradhan and Maria A. van Noordwijk; 9. Post-copulatory sexual selection in birds and primates Tim R. Birkhead and Peter M. Kappeler; Part IV. Development and Consequences: 10. Development and sexual selection in primates Joanna M. Setchell and Phyllis C. Lee; 11. Alternative male reproductive strategies: male bimaturism in orangutans Suci Atmoko Utami and Jan A. R. A. M. van Hooff; 12. Sexual selection and the careers of primate males: paternity concentration, dominance acquisition tactics and transfer decisions Maria A. van Noordwijk and Carel P. van Schaik; 13. Sexual selection, measures of sexual selection and sexual dimorphism in primates J. Michael Plavcan; 14. Sex ratios in primate groups Joan B. Silk and Gillian R. Brown; 15. Natural and sexual selection and the evolution of multi-level societies: insights from zebras with comparisons to primates Daniel I. Rubenstein and Mace Hack; Index.

Customer Reviews

Biography

PETER KAPPELER is Head of the Department of Behaviour and Ecology in the Deutsches Primatenzentrum in Gottingen, Germany. CAREL VAN SCHAIK is a Professor in the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at Duke University, North Carolina.