Inter And Intra Sexual Selection In Selected Examples (Essay Sample)

Inter and Intra Sexual Selection
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The sexual conflict also known as sexual antagonism is a phenomenon that arises whenever two sexes of any organism display the best though different fitness tactics in regards to the mode of reproduction (Arnqvist and Rowe, 2013). The conflict occurs when the mode, as well as the frequency of mating, leads to the evolutionary arms race among the males and females of a given species. Intralocus sexual conflict usually occurs when there are sex-specific optima within a trait expressed in the two sexes. As a result, the shared gene pool represses both the male and female from getting to the optimal independently. Similarly, the interlocus sexual conflict is as a result of antagonistic allele interaction at various loci in both male and female hence prevents the male and female from the fitness optima. The occurrence of male optimal strategy significantly relies on the mating systems; in an intra-sexual selection, the male competition is essential, in that the male organism favorably capitalize on the fighting potential features like the development of weapons (Willis, 2015).
Contrarily, the inter-sexual selection mainly depends on female choice; as a result, the males shows features such as long tails, a manifestation of bright colors, as a consequence, a particular male-life strategy emerges (Arnqvist and Rowe, 2013). For instance, the polygynous mating evolution occurs when the male donates sperms to many females, and male fitness greatly relies on the total number of mating partners. However, it is inexact to what exactly governs the various number of mating partners as well as how the optimal male strategy is established. Notably, the inter-sexual selection in many organisms through the female choice appears to be rare; however, the intra-sexual selection in male-male competition has been recognized to be predominant in insects, lizards as well as the anurans (Jennions and Kokko, 2014).
According to Lewis (2005), intrasexual selection before copulation may occur as male versus male combat while the mate choice (intersexual selection) arises when the female chooses the preferred male mate. The characteristics selected by the male form secondary characteristics like antlers and horns which Charles Darwin described as weapons. However, such weapons have proofed to be disadvantageous to the organism; for instance, the large and massive antlers make the animal too slow to escape from the predators and have significantly led to the extinction of many species. Similarly, the bright colors have as well proofed to be a disadvantage since they make an organism to be conspicuous hence more susceptible to the predators (Arnqvist and Rowe, 2013).
According to Arnqvist and Rowe (2013), the intersexual selection can arise as a result of the features manifested by one sex as opposed to both the or...