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Shifts in sexual dimorphism across a mass extinction in ostracods: implications for sexual selection as a factor in extinction risk

dc.contributor.authorMartins, Maria Joao Fernandes
dc.contributor.authorHunt, Gene
dc.contributor.authorThompson, Carmi Milagros
dc.contributor.authorLockwood, Rowan
dc.contributor.authorSwaddle, John P.
dc.contributor.authorPuckett, T. Markham
dc.date.accessioned2021-06-24T11:35:21Z
dc.date.available2021-06-24T11:35:21Z
dc.date.issued2020-08
dc.description.abstractSexual selection often favours investment in expensive sexual traits that help individuals compete for mates. In a rapidly changing environment, however, allocation of resources to traits related to reproduction at the expense of those related to survival may elevate extinction risk. Empirical testing of this hypothesis in the fossil record, where extinction can be directly documented, is largely lacking. The rich fossil record of cytheroid ostracods offers a unique study system in this context: the male shell is systematically more elongate than that of females, and thus the sexes can be distinguished, even in fossils. Using mixture models to identify sex clusters from size and shape variables derived from the digitized valve outlines of adult ostracods, we estimated sexual dimorphism in ostracod species before and after the Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction in the United States Coastal Plain. Across this boundary, we document a substantial shift in sexual dimorphism, driven largely by a pronounced decline in the taxa with dimorphism indicating both very high and very low male investment. The shift away from high male investment, which arises largely from evolutionary changes within genera that persist through the extinction, parallels extinction selectivity previously documented during the Late Cretaceous under a background extinction regime. Our results suggest that sexual selection and the allocation of resources towards survival versus reproduction may be an important factor for species extinction during both background and mass extinctions.
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [NSF-EAR 1424906]
dc.description.versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi10.1098/rspb.2020.0730
dc.identifier.issn0962-8452
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/16413
dc.language.isoeng
dc.peerreviewedyes
dc.publisherRoyal Soc
dc.subjectExtinction selectivity
dc.subjectCytheroidea
dc.subjectOstracoda
dc.subjectSexual dimorphism
dc.subjectSexual selection
dc.subjectCretaceous
dc.subjectPalaeogene mass extinction
dc.titleShifts in sexual dimorphism across a mass extinction in ostracods: implications for sexual selection as a factor in extinction risk
dc.typejournal article
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.citation.issue1933
oaire.citation.startPage20200730
oaire.citation.titleProceedings of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences
oaire.citation.volume287
person.familyNameFernandes Martins
person.givenNameMaria João
person.identifierA-6948-2013
person.identifier.ciencia-idD91A-79B0-2288
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-9118-7397
rcaap.rightsrestrictedAccess
rcaap.typearticle
relation.isAuthorOfPublication9b55b524-d0b3-4c9b-9eaa-a0eeb73f5862
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery9b55b524-d0b3-4c9b-9eaa-a0eeb73f5862

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