Maternal ornaments and prenatal corticosterone correlate negatively with offspring survival and sexual ornamentation at maturity
Colorful traits that signal individual quality (i.e., ornaments) have well-established relationships with individual condition and physiology. Further, ornaments expressed in females may have indirect fitness effects in offspring via associated prenatal physiology and social consequences of these signaling traits. Here we examine the influence of prenatal maternal physiology and phenotype on a condition-dependent signal in the lizard Sceloporus undulatus. Specifically, we explore how prenatal maternal testosterone, corticosterone, and ornament color and size correlate with offspring ornament quality and survival to adulthood. Offspring of females with more saturated color and high prenatal corticosterone were less likely to survive to maturity. Badge saturation and area were negatively correlated between mothers and sons, and uncorrelated to badges in daughters. Maternal corticosterone exhibited an independent, negative relationship with badge saturation of male offspring. Our results indicate that maternal ornamentation and prenatal concentrations of a stress-relevant hormone can lead to compounding fitness costs by reducing offspring survival to maturity and impairing expression of a signal of quality in surviving males. This mechanism may occur in concert with social costs of ornamentation in mothers. Intergenerational effects of female ornamentation and prenatal stress may be interdependent drivers of balancing selection and intralocus sexual conflict over signaling traits.
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Work Title | Maternal ornaments and prenatal corticosterone correlate negatively with offspring survival and sexual ornamentation at maturity |
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License | Public Domain Mark 1.0 |
Work Type | Dataset |
Publication Date | 2021 |
DOI | doi:10.26207/dvza-dg97 |
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Deposited | July 22, 2021 |
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