ISSN:
1573-3297
Keywords:
sexual selection
;
sexual isolation
;
Drosophila
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Psychology
Notes:
Abstract The idea that sexual selection is responsible for most of the characters, morphological, physiological, and behavioral, that are observed as subserving the efficiency of the reproductive act as an important monitor of fitness is developed. As a corollary, sexual isolation is downgraded, being considered a relatively unimportant secondary process for which the term “mechanism” is singularly inappropriate. The reproductive isolation frequently observed between allopatric species appears to me to be mostly an incidental out come of the fine tuning of the intrapopulational efficiency of the process of sexual reproduction. Two points are stressed: first, sexual selection is a powerful means of serving fitness; and second, hybridization poses little threat to the integrity or future well-being of a species.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01065534
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