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Citation for Study 10073

About Citation title: "Sexual selection is involved in speciation in a land snail radiation on Crete".
About This study was previously identified under the legacy study ID S2413 (Status: Published).

Citation

Sauer J., & Hausdorf B. 2009. Sexual selection is involved in speciation in a land snail radiation on Crete. Evolution, 63(10): 2535-2546.

Authors

  • Sauer J.
  • Hausdorf B.

Abstract

We investigated the importance of sexual selection in facilitating speciation in a land snail radiation on Crete. We used differences in the genitalia of the Cretan Xerocrassa species as potential indices of sexual selection. First, we rejected the hypothesis that differences in the genitalia of the Xerocrassa species can be explained by genetic drift using coalescent simulations based on a mitochondrial gene tree. Second, we showed that there is no evidence for the hypothesis that the differences in the genitalia can be explained by natural selection against hybrids under the assumption that this is more likely in geographically overlapping species pairs and clades. Thus, the differences in the genitalia evolved probably as a result of sexual selection. Finally, we showed that the evolution of differences in the length of the flagellum that forms the tail of the spermatophore is concentrated towards the tips of the tree indicating that it is involved in speciation. The tail of the spermatophore enables the sperm to escape from the female gametolytic organ. Thus, the radiation might have been triggered by sexual conflict or cryptic female choice. If speciation is facilitated by sexual selection, niches may remain conserved and non-adaptive radiation may result.

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  • Canonical resource URI: http://purl.org/phylo/treebase/phylows/study/TB2:S10073
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