page_title: Sexual selection in scaled reptiles
section_title: Lizards
hierarchical_section_title: Sexual selection in scaled reptiles / Male-male competition / Lizards
caption_attribution_description: Agama mwanzae Loveridge 1923 (not yet confirmed) Deutsch: Siedleragame (Agama mwanzae), fotografiert im Serengeti Nationalpark / Tansania English: Flat-Headed Rock Agama (Agama mwanzae), picture taken in Serengeti national park / Tanzania Français&#160;: Un Agama (Agama mwanzae), genre de lézards proche du margouillat. Parc National du Serengeti, Tanzanie.
context_page_description: Sexual selection in scaled reptiles studies how sexual selection manifests in snakes and lizards, which constitute the order Squamata of reptiles. Each of the over three thousand snakes use different tactics in acquiring mates. Ritual combat between males for the females they want to mate with includes topping, a behavior exhibited by most viperids in which one male will twist around the vertically elevated fore body of its opponent and forcing it downward. It is common for neck biting to occur while the snakes are entwined.
context_section_description: Males spend most of their energy in fights over a female to establish dominance and impress females by demonstrating a high quality of fitness.  In  White's skink (Egernia whitii), in southeastern Australia, larger males with strength and size correlating positively, intimidate rivals with their size, ward off other males from a female and claim territory space. The losers of fights have an increased Stress rate and fewer breeding opportunities while fighting among males, which only happens during the breeding season illustrates to a female that he would be able to provide protection for her and her eggs.
  Some weapons used are spikes on the body and tail, teeth, and claws. An iguana's bite force can result in injury to other males; this leads the weaker male to flee from the fight and abort his chance of trying to mate. Bite-force performance predicts dominance in males and who sires more offspring. Male dominance correlates with a large territory size and access to females. In the common collared lizard Crotaphytus collaris, males display their locomotive skills in order to attract a female by getting to territory and resources first. Faster males have energy to spend when it comes to obtaining food and territory and are protective of their female mate and have a higher reproductive success and mate with more females on a first-come, first-served basis. In Australian agamid lizards coloration influences competitive success; the more intimidating a male is perceived based on his color, the more likely a weaker male would not want to compete with him for a chance to mate with a female.
caption: An agamid
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