BIO 4170 - Sexual Selection

3 cr

Why are male cardinals bright red and females drab? Why do female preying mantises occasionally eat their mates? Male seahorses get pregnant!? What is the biological basis for the morphological and behavioral differences between the sexes in organisms ranging from spiders to snails to orchids to humans? Sexual selection was first proposed by Charles Darwin as a corollary to natural selection and it has become one of the most active areas of research in biology. This course explores the theory of sexual selection as well as its effects in nature.
Prerequisite: 'C' or better in BIO 1121 and BIO 1122 .
Periodically