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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Conflict, Constraint, And The Evolution Of The Multivariate Performance Phenotype, Ann M. Cespedes Phd
Conflict, Constraint, And The Evolution Of The Multivariate Performance Phenotype, Ann M. Cespedes Phd
University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
Performance is key to survival. From day-to-day foraging events, to reproductive activities, to life-or-death crises, how well an organism performs these tasks can determine success or failure. Selection, therefore, both natural and sexual, act upon performance, and performance demands on individuals shape a population’s morphological and physiological trait distributions. While studies of morphological adaptations to ecological pressures implicitly center on the idea that responses to selection improve performance via changes in morphology, the relationships between morphology, performance, and fitness are not always well understood. In this dissertation, I investigate these relationships explicitly, as well as determine the effects that different …
The Effects Of Ecological Context And Individual Characteristics On Stereotyped Displays In Male Anolis Carolinensis, Catherine Policastro
The Effects Of Ecological Context And Individual Characteristics On Stereotyped Displays In Male Anolis Carolinensis, Catherine Policastro
University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
Displays are ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom. While many have been thoroughly documented, the factors affecting the expression of such displays are still not fully understood. We tested the hypotheses that display production would be affected by ecological context (i.e. the identity of the receiver) and intrinsic qualities of the signaler (i.e. heavyweight and lightweight size class) in the green anole lizard, Anolis carolinensis. Our results supported these predictions and show that a) ecological context, specifically displaying to conspecifics, has the greatest impact on display production; b) size class influenced display rate with heavyweight males displaying more to green …