Sexual Selection, Life History Evolution, and Conservation Biology
P. Raelynn Deaton, Assistant Professor

My research investigates sexual selection in species of fish with coercive mating systems (mosquitofishes, genus Gambusia). I am interested in factors that influence these complex mating systems, including female mate choice, male mate choice, and male coercion. Specifically, I study characteristics such as male and female size, male and female phenotypic cues which may be important in mating, parasite load, body condition, and male aggression, and experimentally test whether they affect sexual selection and/or male and female reproductive success. I am also interested in how much control females actually have in mating (since these fish exhibit a mostly male-driven mating system) and whether female control affects male reproductive success. Females may control mating via resistance or other more cryptic mechanisms (e.g. sperm choice), ideas that I am currently testing. REU students will develop projects that investigate factors that influence female and male reproductive strategies.

For more information on this REU opportunity, please e-mail Dr. Deaton at rdeaton@shsu.edu.