“Dynamics of sex roles and sexual selection: lessons from goby fishes”, Trond Amundsen

Traditionally, animal sex roles have been thought of as rather fixed, with males competing amongst themselves, and for female attention. As a consequence, sexual selection has been thought to shape male behaviour and morphology, but to affect females little. Building on his work with goby fishes, Trond Amundsen will show that this conventional view is far from the full story, and that females can have a much more prominent role in mating competition than traditionally thought. Amundsen will present work done in his group that reveals a dynamic nature of mating competition and sexual selection, in which the roles of males and females vary in time and space.