Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-178).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2008 Nov 30

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2004. / Advisor: Bennett Galef. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-90). Also available online.

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This thesis presents two studies where natural and sexual selection have interacted to evolve sexual behaviours. The thesis uses mathematical modelling to understand how these forces have caused each behaviour to evolve. This is useful because the results allow for reflection on the potential role of sexual selection in adaptation of these species to a changing environment. The first study is of early male arrival to spring breeding grounds in migratory avian species, this is termed protandry. The study explores the main hypotheses for avian protandry and then tests the susceptibility of each hypothesis to changing environment. The second study is of convenience polyandry in species where there is conflict over mating rate. Females have multiple strategies to avoid harassive males but strategies vary in cost and success rate; she must balance her strategy use to minimise her fitness depreciation. The study identifies the main factors that cause convenience polyandry to evolve and paves the way for future studies to investigate if sexual selection over resistance strategy provides these species a future advantage in adaptation to a changing environment.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at New Paltz, 2007. / Also issued in electronic version. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-31). Online version available via the SUNY New Paltz Sojourner Truth Library : http://hdl.handle.net/1951/39633

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Faculty of the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine, Department of Ecology and Evolution, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Sexual selection is usually invoked to explain the evolution of elaborate epigamic characters in animals. However, the mechanism by which female choice operates is poorly understood, and it is not clear whether female choice is purely aesthetic or related to male genotypic quality. It has been suggested that Moller's fluctuating asymmetry (FA) hypothesis may resolve the 'arbitrary trait'-'good gene' debate. However, tests of this controversial hypothesis have yielded equivocal results. I examined the allometric patterns of FA in the redcollared widow in order to test the FA hypothesis. In addition, I documented intrapopulation variation in trait size to determine whether females could distinguish between males on the basis of ornament size and/or symmetry. Male tail length was found to be more variable in size than other traits, suggesting that sufficient variation exists in ornament size for females to distinguish between males on this basis. In addition, the prediction of the FA hypothesis that ornaments would display higher degrees of asymmetry than non-ornamental traits was supported. However, no significant linear or second-order polynomial relationship was found between trait size and asymmetry for tail, wing and tarsus length. Furthermore, neither tail length or symmetry was correlated with indices of body condition. Although this might suggest that the FA hypothesis is invalid, I argue that the assumptions of the hypothesis are too simplistic for it to hold true for all species without taking the basic biology of the species into account. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.