Sexual Selection and Communication

The course provides a comprehensive introduction to sexual selection and communication in animals. Sexual selection is "Darwin's second theory" and a major evolutionary force to explain all sorts of extravagant traits in animals, from beautiful colours and strange plumes to antlers and horns, bird and insect song, and elaborate mating rituals found across the animal kingdom. Central themes of the course include mating competition, mate choice, pre- and post-mating sexual selection, animal sex role dynamics, and how sexual selection has shaped female and male morphology and behaviour. Communication plays a central role in sexual selection, and the subject is mainly discussed in the context of communication among competitors, for matings or resources required to mate, or between the sexes, in the context of mate choice. With these processes central to individual reproductive success and thus to evolutionary fitness, sexual selection is a major driver of evolution. Likewise, behavioural dynamics underlying reproductive output are central to how animal populations may respond to human-induced changes in the environment.

Knowledge:

The candidate should obtain knowledge about:

• Animal communication and the basic theories for communication
• Reproductive behaviour of animals, with particular emphasis on sexual behaviour
• Sexual selection, including how sexual selection affects morphology and behaviour of males and females, and how this drives reproductive dynamics
• The importance of sexual selection for speciation and biodiversity
• How human-induced environmental change may affect sexual selection and reproduction
• Scientific writing through project work experience

Skills:

The candidate will be skilled on:

• Identify and understand original literature in the forefront of current research on selected topics
• Formulate and test scientific hypotheses
• Understand and interpret empirical data as a means to explain biological phenomena
• Present and discuss biological science, using examples from communication and reproduction

Generall competence:

The candidate will get competence on:

• Use knowledge about reproductive dynamics, communication and sexual selection is assessment of biological questions
• Critically assess scientific studies, and extract relevant data from such investigations
• Write an overview of a scientific question based on scientific literature.

The course consists of two parts:

1. Teaching sessions covering the major themes of the course, and
2. A literature-based project (conducted in groups) to review the state-of-the-art for an 'unsolved puzzle' within the theme for the course. Teaching sessions aim for student engagement and student-teacher interaction. Teaching sessions and projects together contribute training in scientific methodology, including formulating and testing scientific hypotheses, based on examples from sexual selection. The group project typically runs for 4-6 weeks plus presentations during the central part of the term, with regular group meetings that are mandatory for all students.