Promiscuity - Birkhead 2000

Question 1

Aristotle noticed hens copulating with two cockerels of different types usually resemble the second to mate

Answer 1

What we now know through using genetic markers is called ‘last male sperm precedence’

Question 2

Erasmus Darwin

Answer 2

noted horns, antlers etc. had evolved to enable males to fight to obtain a mate.

Question 3

Robert Trivers

Answer 3

whichever sex puts the least effort into rearing offspring shows the greatest variation in reproductive success

the sex that invests the most becomes a limiting factor for the other sex which has to compete for a mate

In shorebird phalaropes, sex role reversal, effort and competition reversal

sexual dimorphism

Question 4

Angus Bateman

Answer 4

Drosophila melanogaster. Genetic markers with known inheritance, to measure reproductive success of male and female flies. Placed 3/4 males w/ 3/4 females to 3/4 days in a vial and after which he allowed the resulting eggs to hatch and develop to figure out who fathered whom.
Dramatic difference between males and females