Reptili Appropriate Sexual Selection In Reptiles

Sexual Selection in Reptiles

Turtles, crocodilians, tuataras and squamates, which include the diverse forms of lizards and snakes, are included in the group called Reptilia (Townsend et al., 2004). They are ectoderms and their sexual behavior and mating characteristics have been widely studied and many theories and interesting features have been documented over the years (Martin, 1994; Shine 2003). According to Uller and Olsson (2008) the reptiles have a unique characteristic regarding their sexual selection and mating characteristics, called the post-copulatory sexual selection. There are two important aspects related to post copulatory sexual selection, they are

 Competition among sperms from different male donors

 Cryptic or in vivo female choice to decide which sperm will fertilize the egg

The reproduction cycle in turtles and lizards vary between weeks to years (Pearse and Avise, 2001). Further, the different components and stages involved in the reproduction process in reptiles have temporal differences. According to Aldridge and Duvall, in reptiles the production of sperm, insemination and fertilization occur separately and are divided by long intervals. This mode of reproduction seems to have vital implications in the evolution process of sexual traits of male and female reptiles, including the selection of storage of sperms and