What Determines Paternity in Wild Lizards? A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Behavior and Morphology

Abstract

Mating behavior in animals can be understood as a sequence of events that begins with individuals encountering one another and ends with the production of offspring. Behavioral descriptions of animal interactions characterize early elements of this sequence, and genetic descriptions use offspring parentage to characterize the final outcome, with behavioral and physiological assessments of mates and mechanisms of copulation and fertilization comprising intermediate steps. However, behavioral and genetic descriptions of mating systems are often inconsistent with one another, complicating expectations for crucial aspects of mating biology, such as the presence of multiple mating. Here, we use behavioral and genetic data from a wild population of the lizard Anolis cristatellus to characterize female multiple mating and the potential for sexual selection through female mate choice in this species. We find that 48% of sampled females bore offspring sired by multiple males. Moreover, spatiotemporal proximity between males and females was associated with whether a male sired a female’s offspring, and if yes, how many offspring he sired. Additionally, male body size, but not display behavior, was associated with reproductive outcomes for male-female pairs. While much remains to be learned about the mechanisms of mating and targets of sexual selection in A. cristatellus, it is clear that female multiple mating is a substantial component of this species’ mating system in nature.

No genomic repercussions of assortative pairing in a colour polymorphic lizard

“…However, and even if assortative pairing leads to assortative mating, such processes can be obscured by multiple paternity, which occurs at high frequencies in dense populations of P. muralis (up to five different males per clutch; Abalos et al, 2020;Oppliger et al, 2007;Uller & Olsson, 2008) and could partially explain the absence of population structure between colour morphs. For instance, females might mate and potentially store sperm from males they were not observed with (Johnson et al, 2021; but see Pellitteri-Rosa et al, 2012). Finally, colour alleles may counterbalance the build-up of population structure by acting as genomic bridges between morphs (Comeault et al, 2015).…”

Multiple paternity is related to adult sex ratio and sex determination system in reptiles

“…First, multiple paternity can be a consequence of male harassment and forced copulations (Westneat & Stewart, 2003). Therefore, its frequency may increase when ASR is skewed toward males, because more males can force copulations more often (Johnson et al, 2021; Le Galliard et al, 2005). Second, multiple paternity may emerge via female‐initiated copulations and female choice if females can gain fitness benefits by mating with multiple males (Jennions & Petrie, 2000; Maldonado‐Chaparro et al, 2018; Westneat & Stewart, 2003).…”