User:Aliciberry/sandbox

I will be editing the Introductions as well as sections 2 & 3 in Mate Choice. All of my edits are made to clarify the material already present, with one major adjustment to two aspects of the article that wasn't necessarily incorrect in nature but was very misleading.

In The Introduction:

Edited the majority of the first paragraph to be more reflection of mate choice, along with some minor changes throughout to word choice. → Mate choice is one of the primary mechanisms under which evolution can occur. It is characterized by a “selective response by animals to particular stimuli” which can be observed as behavior In other words, before an animal engages with a potential mate, they first evaluate various aspects of that mate which are indicative of quality-- such as the resources or phenotypes they have-- and evaluate whether or not those particular trait(s) are somehow beneficial to them. The evaluation will then incur a response of some sort.

These mechanisms are a part of evolutionary change because they operate in a way that causes the qualities that are desired in a mate to be more frequently passed on to each generation over time. For example, if female peacocks desire mates who have a colourful plumage, then this trait will increase in frequency over time as male peacocks with a colourful plumage will have more reproductive success.[2] Further investigation of this concept, has found that it is in fact the specific trait of blue and green colour near the eyespot that seems to increase the females likelihood of mating with a specific peacock.[3]

Mate choice is one of two components of sexual selection, the other being intrasexual selection. Ideas on sexual selection were first introduced in 1871, by Charles Darwin, then expanded on by Ronald Fisher in 1915. At present, there are five sub mechanisms of sexual selection that explain how mate choice has evolved over time. These are direct phenotypic benefits, sensory bias, the Fisherian runaway hypothesis, indicator traits and genetic compatibility.

In the majority of systems where mate choice exists, one sex tends to be competitive with same-sex members[4] and the other sex is choosy (which means they are selective when it comes to picking individuals to mate with). There are direct and indirect benefits of being the selective individual.[5][6][7] In most species, females are the choosy sex which discriminates among competitive males,[4] but there are several examples of reversed roles (see below). It is preferable for an individual to choose a compatible mate of the same species, in order to maintain reproductive success.[8] Other factors that can influence mate choice include pathogen stress and the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC).

In Section 2:

Removal of an inaccurate statement and replacement with a more accurate and more informative version of that same statement, for the first paragraph → The act of being choosy was likely selected for as a way to assess whether or not a potential partner’s contribution(s) would be capable of producing and/or maintaining the viability of an offspring. Utilizing these behaviors usually results in two types of benefits to the individual who is being choosy:

In Section 3:

—Direct Phenotypic Benefits—

Rephrasing to make the content more clear for the first two sentences → A choosy mate tends to have preferences for certain types of traits-- also known as phenotypes-- which would benefit them to have in a potential partner. These traits must be reliable, and commutative of something that directly benefits the choosy partner in some way.

''A replacement of paragraph three, In order to clarify some indirect benefits to the child while remaining true to the central concept, since the given examples are not direct phenotypic benefits, as they did not impact the choosy mate directly. '' → Though this particular mechanism operates on the premise that all phenotypes must communicate something that benefits the choosy mate directly, they can still have unintentional indirect benefits for an offspring. For example, with the increased help in feeding their young seen in Northern Cardinals with more plumage brightness, comes an increase in the overall amount of food that is likely to be given to the offspring. Though this trait was chosen for by the female to allow her more time and energy to be allocated to creating more offspring, it still benefits the offspring in that two parents are now providing food instead of one, thereby increasing the overall amount of food available to the offspring. —Sensory—

Adding some phrases for clarity → Exploited by the less choosy sex (instead of exploited by one sex)

—Fisherian—

Adding a new sentence, and giving a new beginning to a former sentence, in order to provide some clarity → This creates a positive feedback loop in which a particular trait is desired by a female and present in a male, and that desire for and presence of that particular trait are then reflected in their offspring. If this mechanism is strong enough, it can lead to....