acase@tulane.edu / A comprehensive understanding of sexual dichromatism and sexual selection depends on understanding selective pressures on females, which may differ from those experienced by males. Conventional theory suggests that ornamentation in females evolves as the byproduct of selection pressures on males, and is non-adaptive. My dissertation challenges this assumption through a series of linked studies related to female ornamentation in a species of tropical passerine bird, the White-shouldered Fairywren (Malurus alboscapulatus), of New Guinea. The White-shouldered Fairywren is ideally suited to evaluate the evolution of female ornamentation, because populations are characterized by divergence in female plumage coloration from brown (unornamented) to black-and-white (ornamented), with no variation in males, which are uniformly black- and-white. My thesis research employed field-based observation and experimentation with contemporary genomic, endocrine, and microscopy techniques to identify proximate mechanisms, current adaptive function, and evolutionary history of female ornamentation in this system. / 1 / Erik Enbody
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_78945 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Contributors | Enbody, Erik (author), Karubian, Jordan (Thesis advisor), School of Science & Engineering Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | electronic, 138 |
| Rights | No embargo, Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law. |
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