8. Conclusions, and where to from here

Abstract

‘Conclusions, and where to from here’ concludes that animals are far more variable in their sexual behaviour than is commonly believed, which means that they do not set a model for natural human behaviour, regardless of how we define it. Females are not always the more caring sex, males are not always more competitive than females, and mate choice and competition take many forms. Under the same selective pressures—to survive long enough to reproduce and to pass on genes to subsequent generations—animals have evolved many different solutions. New areas of sexual selection research include the use of genomics to understand the evolution of alternative reproductive behaviour and for better understanding sexual conflict.