Abstract
Individuals’ locations in space and time determine their potential social and reproductive interactions, and thus the extent to which they experience sexual selection. However, movement behavior is rarely considered when quantifying sexual selection. We used an explicitly spatiotemporal Markov chain modelling approach to estimate the number of potential mates of male and female Anolis sagrei lizards from their movement behavior, and used genetic paternity assignments to complement and corroborate our model results. Females frequently encountered and mated with multiple males, offering ample opportunity for sexual selection through female choice. Further, sexual selection favored larger spatial extents and larger body sizes in males, though the effect of body size is difficult to disentangle from evidence for last-male precedence. We posit that explicitly spatiotemporal quantifications of space-use behavior could help to reconcile widespread dissonance across studies of mating systems in animals, and will be necessary for quantifying sexual selection in the wild.