The sociobiology of sex and sexes today

Abstract

The theory of the evolution of sexual reproduction & behavior is examined, with a focus on three problems: why the diversity created by sex is an advantage; why there are typically two mating types; & why mating types are often also sexes with dimorphic traits. Theoretical aspects of these problems are explored, with attention to sex, bipolarity, the evolution of gamete dimorphism, parasitism among sex chromosomes, & a new theory of sexual selection based on sexually selected characteristics being indicators of low levels of parasitism by heterogametic sex chromosomes. Comments are offered by Graham Bell (McGill U, Montreal, Quebec), David W. Dickins (U of Liverpool, England), Michael T. Ghiselin (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco), John Hartung (State U of New York, Brooklyn), Lila Leibowitz (Northestern U, Boston, Mass), John Maynard Smith (U of Sussex, Brighton, England), V. Reynolds (Dept of Biological Anthropology, 58 Banbury Road, Oxford, England), Alan R. Rogers (State U of New York, Albany), Peter D. Taylor & Malcolm P. Griffin (Queen’s U, Kingston, Ontario), John Tooby (Harvard U, Cambridge, Mass), Pierre L. van den Berghe (U of Washington, Seattle), & Shozo Yokoyama (Washington U Medical School, Saint Louis, Mo), with a Reply by Marion Blute that addresses five issues: whether sex should be linked to sexual dimorphism; whether the twofold cost of sex to Fs is a problem for autosomes; whether parasitism among sex chromosomes is translated into effects on fitness; whether sex is similar to other sociocultural & SE processes; & what kind of theory can account for the maintenance of sex in organisms such as vertebrates. 2 Figures, 61 References. W. H. Stoddard.