Sexual selection and genital allometry in the Hottentot golden mole (Amblysomus hottentotus)

Retief, Tarryn A.; Bennett, Nigel C.; Kinahan, Anouska A.; Bateman, Philip W.

doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2012.12.002

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Our results contrast with the few available data from other vertebrates, which generally show an opposite pattern of positive allometric slopes in male genitalia (Eberhard, 2009;Retief et al, 2013). This pattern has been interpreted as a result of directional sexual selection, where females choose males based on the relative size of genital traits, perhaps using genital size as an indicator of good genes (Pomiankowski and Møller, 1995).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Hemipenial Allometry inAnolis grahami

Klaczko¹,

Stuart²

2015

Journal of Herpetology

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Hemipenial Allometry inAnolis grahami

Klaczko¹,

Stuart²

2015

Journal of Herpetology

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“…The genitalia of male mammals tend to show significant positive allometry (e.g., testes mass in Cape ground squirrels, Xerus inauris [50]; penis length in bats [53]; baculum size in harp seals, Pagophilus groenlandicus [54]; penis length in in Hottentot golden moles, Amblysomus hottentotus [55]; baculum size in muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus [56]), although scaling relationships may vary with the strength of pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection and/or mating systems [57–60]. However, few studies have investigated the scaling of female mammalian reproductive tracts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, few studies have investigated the scaling of female mammalian reproductive tracts. An isometric relationship was found with vaginal length in Hottentot golden moles [55], while no significant scaling patterns were found between body length and vaginal length or vaginal mass in Cape ground squirrels [50] or vaginal length in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes [61]). Significant positive allometry was reported for vaginal length in Cape dune mole-rats ( Bathyergus suillus ); however, this pattern was exclusive to the breeding season [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of cetacean vaginal folds yield insights into functionality

Orbach¹,

Marshall²,

Mesnick³

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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Complex foldings of the vaginal wall are unique to some cetaceans and artiodactyls and are of unknown function(s). The patterns of vaginal length and cumulative vaginal fold length were assessed in relation to body length and to each other in a phylogenetic context to derive insights into functionality. The reproductive tracts of 59 female cetaceans (20 species, 6 families) were dissected. Phylogenetically-controlled reduced major axis regressions were used to establish a scaling trend for the female genitalia of cetaceans. An unparalleled level of vaginal diversity within a mammalian order was found. Vaginal folds varied in number and size across species, and vaginal fold length was positively allometric with body length. Vaginal length was not a significant predictor of vaginal fold length. Functional hypotheses regarding the role of vaginal folds and the potential selection pressures that could lead to evolution of these structures are discussed. Vaginal folds may present physical barriers, which obscure the pathway of seawater and/or sperm travelling through the vagina. This study contributes broad insights to the evolution of reproductive morphology and aquatic adaptations and lays the foundation for future functional morphology analyses.

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“…For example, a positive allometry between testes size and body length has been reported in the Hottentot golden mole (Amblysomus hottentotus) as an exception to the one-size-fits-all hypothesis. 121 However, this positive allometry was most likely generated by the difference in dimension between the traits (body length -length vs. testes mass -volume).…”

Section: Box 1 Narrow-sense and Broad-sense Allometry: Conceptual Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of morphological allometry

Pélabon

Firmat

Bolstad

et al. 2014

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

200

230

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23Allometry refers to the power-law relationship that often occurs between body parts and total 24 body size. Whether measured during growth (ontogenetic allometry), among individuals at 25 similar developmental stage (static allometry) or among populations or species (evolutionary 26 allometry), allometric relationships are often surprisingly tight, and relatively invariant. 27Consequently, it has been suggested that allometry could constrain phenotypic evolution, that 28 is, force evolving species along fixed trajectories. Alternatively allometric relationship may 29 result from selection. Despite nearly a century of active research on allometry, distinguishing 30 between these two alternatives remains difficult partly due to the use of a broad sense 31 definition of allometry where the meaning of relative growth was lost. Focusing on the 32 original narrow-sense definition of allometry, we review evidence for and against the 33 "allometry as a constraint" hypothesis. Although the low evolvability of the static allometric 34 slopes observed in some studies suggests a possible constraining effect of this parameter on 35 phenotypic evolution, the nearly complete absence of knowledge about selection on allometry 36 prevents any firm conclusion. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Introduction 42Allometry is the study of the relationship between body size and other organismal traits. 43Allometry is important because variation in a wide variety of morphological, physiological 44 and life history traits are highly correlated with organism size [1,2,3]. These relationships 45 generate intuitive hypotheses for understanding trait variation; for example, the fact that 46 humans are larger than mice can be used to explain why the basal metabolic rate of a human 47 is much higher than the basal metabolic rate of a mouse. In most cases, traits show a non-48 linear relationship with size that is accurately captured by a power relationship of the form z = 49, where the trait value is z, the organism size is x, and a and b are parameters of the 50 relationship. If b = 1, the relationship between the trait and size is linear, a condition referred 51 to as isometry. When b ≠ 1, the relationship is non-linear on the arithmetic scale. For 52 example, the basal metabolic rate in mammals scales with body mass with a coefficient b ≈ 53 0.71 [4]; as a result, for every unit increase in mass, a larger organism will have a smaller 54 increase in basal metabolic rate than a smaller organism. Consequently, humans have a basal 55 metabolic rate 5 to 10 times smaller than a mouse when corrected for body size. The ubiquity 56 of these power-law relationships has led biologists to refer to them as allometric relationships. 57Analyzed on log-transformed data these relationships become linear: log(z) = log(a) + 58 b×log(x), where log(a) and b re...

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Sexual selection and genital allometry in the Hottentot golden mole (Amblysomus hottentotus)

Cited by 7 publications

References 42 publications

Hemipenial Allometry inAnolis grahami

Hemipenial Allometry inAnolis grahami

Patterns of cetacean vaginal folds yield insights into functionality

Evolution of morphological allometry

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