Growing apart: an ontogenetic perspective on the evolution of sexual size dimorphism

Sexes play different roles in reproduction and the adaptive significance of the often remarkably distinct morphologies of adult males and females is documented frequently. Yet, in most vertebrates, the sexes are nearly identical in morphology during early development and undergo highly divergent gro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2002-08, Vol.17 (8), p.369-378
Main Author: Badyaev, Alexander V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Biological evolution
Development
Ecology
Endocrinology
evolution
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetics
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
growth
ontogeny
Physiology
sexual conflict
Sexual dimorphism
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Summary:Sexes play different roles in reproduction and the adaptive significance of the often remarkably distinct morphologies of adult males and females is documented frequently. Yet, in most vertebrates, the sexes are nearly identical in morphology during early development and undergo highly divergent growth to achieve different adult sizes. The mechanisms that enable the virtually genetically identical sexes to have such divergent growth are not well understood. Of special interest are the constraints that a shared gene pool imposes on sex-specific modifications of growth and the ways that males and females overcome these constraints in response to divergent selection pressures. Recent studies show that the rapid evolution of sex-specific developmental regulators and modifiers can produce sexual dimorphism in size whilst maintaining the integrity of the developmental program that is shared between the sexes. Striking diversity in the ontogenetic pathways that produce SSD emphasizes the importance of a developmental approach of a developmental approach in understanding its evolution.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/S0169-5347(02)02569-7