{"doi":"10.1111/ele.12780","title":"Sexual selection, speciation and constraints on geographical range overlap in birds","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The role of sexual selection as a driver of speciation remains unresolved, not least because we lack a clear empirical understanding of its influence on different phases of the speciation process. Here, using data from 1306 recent avian speciation events, we show that plumage dichromatism (a proxy for sexual selection) does not predict diversification rates, but instead explains the rate at which young lineages achieve geographical range overlap. Importantly, this effect is only significant when range overlap is narrow (&lt; 20%). These findings are consistent with a ‘differential fusion’ model wherein sexual selection reduces rates of fusion among lineages undergoing secondary contact, facilitating parapatry or limited co‐existence, whereas more extensive sympatry is contingent on additional factors such as ecological differentiation. Our results provide a more mechanistic explanation for why sexual selection appears to drive early stages of speciation while playing a seemingly limited role in determining broad‐scale patterns of diversification.</jats:p>","journal":"Ecology Letters","year":2017,"id":35034,"datarank":1.6008536991523004,"base_score":4.406719247264253,"endowment":4.406719247264253,"self_citation_contribution":0.6610078870896381,"citation_network_contribution":0.9398458120626622,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6610078870896381,"citer_contribution":0.9398458120626622,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":81,"citer_count":70,"citers_with_citation_signal":52,"citers_with_endowment":52,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":180308,"name":"Joseph A. Tobias","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":180309,"name":"Jason T. Weir","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":180310,"name":"Carlos A. Botero","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":180311,"name":"Nathalie Seddon","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":180307,"name":"Christopher R. Cooney","orcid":"0000-0002-4872-9146","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":4.406719247264253,"endowment":4.406719247264253,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"28513066","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2614117688","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Natural Environment Research Council","grant_id":"NE/I028068/1","title":"Structure, function and resilience of avian communities in tropical ecosystems"},{"funder_name":"Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada","grant_id":"RGPIN‐2016‐0653","title":null},{"funder_name":"Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada","grant_id":"49289","title":null},{"funder_name":"Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada","grant_id":"unidentified","title":"unidentified"},{"funder_name":"Royal Society","grant_id":"","title":null}],"total_grants":5,"fwci":21.2729,"citation_percentile":0.99443576,"influential_citations":2,"citation_trend":[{"year":2017,"count":2},{"year":2018,"count":6},{"year":2019,"count":32},{"year":2020,"count":7},{"year":2021,"count":7},{"year":2022,"count":6},{"year":2023,"count":4},{"year":2024,"count":7},{"year":2025,"count":6},{"year":2026,"count":4}],"oa_status":"closed","license":"Wiley Online Library User Agreement","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/116997/1/Cooney_etal_Sexual_Selection_ACCEPTED_MS_FULL.pdf","host_type":"GREEN"},{"url":"https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fele.12780","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ele.12780","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12780","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28513066","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bio_facpubs/139","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7a5d5fc1-b298-426a-9aea-2f0a3572c4da","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/50601","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/116997/1/Cooney_etal_Sexual_Selection_ACCEPTED_MS_FULL.pdf","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12780","host_type":""},{"url":"https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/116997/","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12780","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Plant and animal studies","Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies","Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies","Medicine","Biology","0106 biological sciences","01 natural sciences","Animals","Birds","Ecology","Genetic Speciation","Geography","Sympatry"],"mesh_terms":["Animals","Birds","Ecology","Geography","Genetic Speciation","Sympatry"],"keywords":["Parapatric speciation","Sympatry","Genetic algorithm","Sexual selection","Biology","Ecological speciation","Evolutionary biology","Disruptive selection","Sympatric speciation","Ecology","Incipient speciation","Plumage","Range (aeronautics)","Selection (genetic algorithm)","Natural selection","Gene flow","Genetic variation","Genetics","speciation","Plumage Dichromatism","Species Co-existence","Differential Fusion","LIFE-HISTORY","570","Genetic Speciation","Environmental Sciences & Ecology","Behavior and Ethology","Birds","Animals","BODY-SIZE","Science & Technology","EXTINCTION RATES","0602 Ecology","Population Biology","Geography","SPECIES RICHNESS","EVOLUTION","LATITUDINAL GRADIENT","0501 Ecological Applications","PATTERNS","DIVERSIFICATION","Life Sciences & Biomedicine"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-09T23:48:14.961161Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}