Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
- PART II MATE GUARDING
- PART III INTRAVAGINAL TACTICS: SPERM COMPETITION AND SEMEN DISPLACEMENT
- 6 Sperm competition and its evolutionary consequences in humans
- 7 The semen-displacement hypothesis: semen hydraulics and the intra-pair copulation proclivity model of female infidelity
- 8 The psychobiology of human semen
- 9 Mate retention, semen displacement, and sperm competition in humans
- 10 Preeclampsia and other pregnancy complications as an adaptive response to unfamiliar semen
- PART IV ASSESSING PATERNITY: THE ROLE OF PATERNAL RESEMBLANCE
- Index
- References
9 - Mate retention, semen displacement, and sperm competition in humans
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
- PART II MATE GUARDING
- PART III INTRAVAGINAL TACTICS: SPERM COMPETITION AND SEMEN DISPLACEMENT
- 6 Sperm competition and its evolutionary consequences in humans
- 7 The semen-displacement hypothesis: semen hydraulics and the intra-pair copulation proclivity model of female infidelity
- 8 The psychobiology of human semen
- 9 Mate retention, semen displacement, and sperm competition in humans
- 10 Preeclampsia and other pregnancy complications as an adaptive response to unfamiliar semen
- PART IV ASSESSING PATERNITY: THE ROLE OF PATERNAL RESEMBLANCE
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Competition between males to fertilize a female's eggs can occur before, during, and after copulation (Parker, 1970; and see Birkhead & Møller, 1998). When the sperm of two or more males simultaneously occupies the reproductive tract of a female and competes to fertilize her eggs, sperm competition occurs (Parker, 1970). Sperm competition has been documented or inferred to exist in many species, ranging from molluscs (Baur, 1998) and insects (Simmons, 2001) to birds (Birkhead & Møller, 1992) and humans (Baker & Bellis, 1993a, 1993b; Gallup et al., 2003; Shackelford, 2003; Shackelford et al., 2002, 2004; Smith, 1984; Wyckoff, Wang, & Wu, 2000).
For species that practice social monogamy, the mating system in which males and females form long-term pair bonds but also pursue extra-pair copulations (e.g. most birds and humans), female sexual infidelity creates the primary context for sperm competition (Birkhead & Møller, 1992; Smith, 1984). Males of such species may have adaptations that decrease the likelihood that a rival male's sperm will fertilize his partner's eggs – adaptations that decrease the likelihood of being cuckolded, unwittingly investing resources in genetically unrelated offspring. Male sexual jealousy, for example, is one of the most widely researched human anti-cuckoldry adaptations. Male sexual jealousy is hypothesized to motivate men to deter a mate from a sexual infidelity or a permanent defection from the mateship, and to deter rivals from mate poaching (e.g. Buss et al., 1992; Daly, Wilson, & Weghorst, 1982; Harris, 2003; Symons, 1979; White & Mullen, 1989).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Female Infidelity and Paternal UncertaintyEvolutionary Perspectives on Male Anti-Cuckoldry Tactics, pp. 173 - 190Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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