Estimating encounter rates as the first step of sexual selection in the lizard Anolis sagrei

How individuals move through their environment dictates which other individuals they encounter, determining their social and reproductive interactions and the extent to which they experience sexual selection. Specifically, females rarely have the option of mating with all males in a population—they can only choose among the males they encounter. Further, quantifying phenotypic differences between the males that females encounter and those that sire females’ offspring lends insight into how social and reproductive interactions shape male phenotypes. We used an explicitly spatiotemporal Markov chain model to estimate the number of potential mates of Anolis sagrei lizards from their movement behavior, and used genetic paternity assignments to quantify sexual selection on males. Females frequently encountered and mated with multiple males, offering ample opportunity for female mate choice. Sexual selection favored males that were bigger and moved over larger areas, though the effect of body...个体在环境中的移动模式决定了其所能遭遇的其他个体，进而塑造其社会与繁殖互动形式，并影响其经历性选择（sexual selection）的程度。具体而言，雌性个体几乎无法与种群内的所有雄性交配，仅能在其遭遇的雄性中进行选择。此外，量化雌性遭遇的雄性与成功使雌性繁育后代的雄性之间的表型差异，有助于揭示社会与繁殖互动如何塑造雄性表型。本研究采用显式时空马尔可夫链模型（spatiotemporal Markov chain model），基于萨氏安乐蜥（Anolis sagrei）的移动行为估算其潜在配偶数量，并通过遗传父权鉴定量化雄性所经历的性选择。雌性个体常会遭遇并与多只雄性交配，为雌性择偶提供了充足机会。性选择青睐体型更大、活动范围更广的雄性，尽管体型的效应……