MJ: Sexual selection, receiver biases, and the evolution of sex differences

Recent approaches to analyzing the evolution of female mat-ing preferences emphasize how historical inßuences on fe-male receiver systems can bias the evolution of male traits that females Þnd attractive. These studies combine animal behavior, sensory biology, phylogenetics, and artiÞcial neural network models. They attempt to understand why speciÞc phenotypes involved in sexual selection have evolved, rather than merely determining whether such traits and preferences are adaptive. It is now clear that traits and preferences often do not coevolve via genetic correlations, that female mating preferences for a given male trait are inßuenced by adapta-tions and constraints outside of the context of female re-sponses to that particular trait, and that receiver biases can explain much of the diversity in male signaling phenotypes. It also appears that an understanding of historical effects wil