Michael J. Ryan

Subtitle in pre-publication: The evolution of attraction in animals and humans.

The Evolution of Attraction

A Taste for the Beautiful

In a Panamanian pond, male túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus) gather in choruses, giving their "advertisement" call to the females that move among them. If a female chooses to make physical contact with a male, he will clasp her and eventually fertilize her eggs. But in vying for the females, the males whose calls are most attractive may also attract the interest of another creature: the fringe-lipped bat, a frog eater. In the Túngara Frog, the most detailed and informative single study available of frogs and their reproductive behavior, Michael J. Ryan demonstrates the interplay of sexual and natural selection. Using techniques from ethology, behavioral ecology, sensory physiology, physiological ecology, and theoretical population genetics in his research, Ryan shows that large males with low-frequency calls mate most successfully. He examines in detail a number of explanations for the females' preferences, and he considers possible evolutionary forces leading to the males' success. Though certain vocalizations allow males to obtain mates and thus should be favored by sexual selection, this study highlights two important costs of such sexual displays: the frogs expand considerable energy in their mating calls, and they advertise their whereabouts to predators. Ryan considers in detail how predators, especially the frige-lipped bat (Trachops cirrhosus), affect the evolution of the túngara frog's calls.

A Study in Sexual Selection and Communication

The Tungara Frog

David A. Eberth

Brenda J. Chinnery-Allgeier

Easily distinguished by the horns and frills on their skulls, ceratopsians were one of the most successful of all dinosaurs. This volume presents a broad range of cutting-edge research on the functional biology, behavior, systematics, paleoecology, and paleogeography of the horned dinosaurs, and includes descriptions of newly identified species.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium

New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs

Ceratopsids, or horned dinosaurs, are a group of large-bodied, quadruped herbivores, which lived roughly 65–70 million years ago. Part of a larger group of dinosaurs that includes stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, ornithopods, and pachycephalosaurs, the better-known members of the ceratopsids include centrosaurs, chasmosaurs, and triceratops. Easily distinguished by the horns and frills on their skulls, ceratopsids were one of the most successful of all dinosaurs. This volume presents a broad range of cutting-edge research on the functional biology and behavior, systematics, paleoecology, and paleogeography of the horned dinosaurs, including descriptions of newly identified species. A CD-ROM includes a census of recovered specimens and a history of ceratopsian discoveries in Canada.

Michael J. Ryan

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