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      What maintains signal honesty in animal colour displays used in mate choice?

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          Abstract

          Many of the colour displays of animals are proposed to have evolved in response to female mate choice for honest signals of quality, but such honest signalling requires mechanisms to prevent cheating. The most widely accepted and cited mechanisms for ensuring signal honesty are based on the costly signalling hypothesis, which posits that costs associated with ornamentation prevent low-quality males from being highly ornamented. Alternatively, by the index hypothesis, honesty can be achieved via cost-free mechanisms if ornament production is causally linked to core physiological pathways. In this essay, we review how a costly signalling framework has shaped empirical research in mate choice for colourful male ornaments and emphasize that alternative interpretations are plausible under an index signalling framework. We discuss the challenges in both empirically testing and distinguishing between the two hypotheses, noting that they need not be mutually exclusive. Finally, we advocate for a comprehensive approach to studies of colour signals that includes the explicit consideration of cost-free mechanisms for honesty.

          This article is part of the themed issue ‘Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application’.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
          Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci
          RSTB
          royptb
          Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
          The Royal Society
          0962-8436
          1471-2970
          5 July 2017
          22 May 2017
          : 372
          : 1724 , Theme issue ‘Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application’ compiled and edited by Tim Caro, Mary Caswell Stoddard and Devi Stuart-Fox
          : 20160343
          Affiliations
          Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University , Auburn, AL 36849, USA
          Author notes
          Author information
          http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6160-4735
          Article
          PMC5444064 PMC5444064 5444064 rstb20160343
          10.1098/rstb.2016.0343
          5444064
          28533460
          c4483a5c-cf2a-43cd-8448-edd34f7d7c42
          © 2017 The Author(s)

          Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

          History
          : 29 January 2017
          Categories
          1001
          70
          14
          203
          Section III: Function
          Review Article
          Custom metadata
          July 5, 2017

          handicap,cost-free signal,honest signal,index signal,resource trade-off,costly signal

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