User:Akl95/sandbox

There is very little information on the broad-nosed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle) here on Wikipedia, especially in terms of mating. Some of the topics I hope to add to the article are: courtship and copulation behaviors (dance, fertilization), sexual role reversal (male brood pouch, male pregnancy, males providing all parental care), polygynandry, males limiting female reproductive success (females competing for access to males), female ornamentation (sexual selection, Bateman’s 3rd principle), effect of size on male and female reproductive success, selective abortion by males

Bibliography of potentially useful sources for article edit of Syngnathus typhle:

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First rough draft of some contributions to Syngnathus typhle article:

Like other species of pipefish, Syngnathus typhle is sex-role reversed, where the males are the choosier of the two sexes and females compete more intensely than males for access to mates.

While both males and females actively court one another for mating, courting is more frequent in females. Courtship begins when a female identifies a prospective male nearby and performs a ritualized dance to attract him. If he is receptive, the two will align and continue the dance together until the female delivers her eggs to the male. The male then shimmies to shake the eggs into his brood pouch and assumes an S-shaped posture to fertilize them. This species has exclusively male parental care, in which they are the sole caretakers responsible for providing oxygen and nutrients to the embryos in the brood pouch until they hatch.

These pipefish have a polygynandrous mating system, such that both males and females have multiple mating partners within a breeding season. One to six females contribute to each brood clutch, which is the highest rate of multiple maternity in all of the pipefish species. Females have a higher potential reproductive rate (PRR) than do males because they produce eggs faster than males can brood them. Males limit female reproductive success because due to brood pouch size, one male cannot fertilize and carry all the eggs of a similarly-sized female. Additionally, females are reproductively limited by male brood rate, which is approximately four to six weeks.

Male brood rate, and thus his PRR, varies with temperature. In warm temperatures, males brood their embryos for a much shorter time than in colder temperatures, such that his PRR is significantly higher in warmer waters. Female egg production and PRR is independent of temperature, but is higher than males in both warm and cold waters.

Fecundity of both sexes increases with size. Both sexes exhibit a preference for large mates because size is linked to mate quality, where larger individuals are considered to be of better genetic quality. Large females produce more eggs, larger eggs, and transfer more eggs per mating. Large males have increased brood clutch size and embryo weight.

Although large mates are preferred, both sexes have developed ways of compensating when reproducing with unideal mates. When mating with smaller, lower-quality males, females provide them with more proteinaceous eggs to increase offspring viability since the smaller males are less able to nurture the embryos himself. Males, on the other hand, have been shown to selectively absorb the eggs of lower-quality females after copulation. By doing so, the male gains nutrients by ingesting the nutritious egg and thus has more resources to allocate to caring for the embryos he sires with preferred, higher quality females in the future.

During the nuptial dance before mating, some females exhibit a temporary sexual ornament in which they darken their lateral zigzag pattern. While all females are able to display this ornament, they differ in their propensity to do so. Ornamented females perform the nuptial dance more often, mate more frequently, and also transfer more eggs than non-ornamented females. In addition to size and ornament playing a role in male mate choice, males also avoid parasitized females. Parasite load is negatively correlated with female fecundity. So when parasitization is visually noticeable to males, they spend less time with females carrying high parasite loads in order to fertilize more eggs. Males also demonstrate a decrease in choosiness in the presence of a predator, where they mate indiscriminately with both small and large females

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First draft of lead section:

Broadnosed pipefish (Syngnathus typhle) is a fish belonging to the family Syngnathidae. This marine fish is distributed throughout the Eastern Atlantic from Norway to Morocco in shallow eelgrass meadows and feeds by suction on small crustaceans. This species of pipefish is notable for its broad snout.

The broadnosed pipefish is long and slender, covered in bony plates, and has a fanned-out caudal fin. It has an overall green color with a yellowish belly and a lifespan of 2-3 years. This pipefish usually lies in a vertical position in seagrass for camouflage from predators such as sculpins, eels, and cods.

Like other species of pipefish, the broadnosed pipefish is sex-role reversed, in which females compete more intensely for access to mates. Males are the choosier sex and limit female reproductive success. The mating system is polygynandrous. Both sexes exhibit a preference for large mates, but have developed compensatory reproductive strategies for when mating with less than ideal partners.

Courtship involves a ritualized dance, which is usually initiated by females. Males have a brood pouch where females deposit their eggs during copulation, which are then fertilized by the male and hatch after approximately four weeks.