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10 results for “eggshell colouration”
Eggshell colour differences in a classic example of coevolved eggshell mimicry
<p>Avian brood parasitism is a model system for understanding coevolutionary arms races, and the great reed warbler (<em>Acrocephalus arundinaceus</em>, hereafter 'warbler') and its parasite the common cuckoo (<em>Cuculus canorus</em>, hereafter 'cuckoo') are prime examples of this coevolutionary struggle. Here, warblers select for egg colour mimicry by rejecting poorly matched cuckoo eggs. Contrary to long-held assumptions, recent work showed that warblers tend to reject lighter and browner eggs but tended to accept darker and bluer eggs rather than basing rejection decisions solely on perceived colour differences (i.e., the degree of mimicry). This counter-intuitive, colour-biased rejection behaviour would select for bluer and darker cuckoo eggs, but would only be adaptive if cuckoos were consistently lighter and browner than warbler eggs. Therefore, we tested whether warbler eggs were consistently bluer and darker than the cuckoo eggs. To do so, we re-analysed eggshell reflectance spectra of warblers and the cuckoos that parasitized them in the Czech Republic. As expected, we found that warbler eggs were significantly bluer and darker than the cuckoo eggs at the population level. Thus, we demonstrate imperfect mimicry in a long-coevolved cuckoo host-race and provide insights for exploring the coevolutionary interactions among hosts and their brood parasites.</p>
Eggshell colour differences in a classic example of coevolved eggshell mimicry
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Data from: Unscrambling variation in avian eggshell colour and patterning in a continent-wide study
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Plumage and eggshell colouration covary with the level of sex-specific parental contributions to nest building in birds
<p>Interspecific variation in sex-specific contributions to prenatal parental care, including avian nest building, remain poorly understood. Here, we examined whether the colouration of the parents and of their eggs covary with sex-specific nest building contributions in 521 species of Western Palearctic birds. Having colourful plumages and laying colourful eggs are both costly because of the deposition of pigments (in feathers and eggs) and/or forming costly nanostructural substrates (in feathers), and so it is expected that those costs are traded-off against the costs of nest building. We therefore tested two predictions of this trade-off hypothesis, namely that species in which females alone build nests (1) exhibit sexual plumage dichromatism in that females are less colourful than males and (2) lay less colourful eggs. Using a phylogenetically-informed comparative approach, we found support for the first prediction so that species in which females build nests alone or together with males are more likely to be dichromatic in plumage. Meanwhile, regarding the second prediction, contrary to our expectation, we found that species in which females build nests alone or together with males are more likely to lay colourfully pigmented eggs relative to species in which only males build nests. This suggests that sex differences in plumage colouration and egg colouration covary in a complex manner with female pre-copulatory investment in reproduction at the interspecific level.</p>
Data from: Protoporphyrin-based eggshell pigmentation is associated with female plumage colouration and predicts offspring sex ratio in the barn swallow
Inter- and intraspecific variation in eggshell colouration has long fascinated evolutionary biologists. Among species, such variation may accomplish different functions, the most obvious of which is camouflage and background matching. Within species, it has been proposed that inter-female variation in eggshell pigmentation patterns can reflect egg, maternal or paternal traits and hence may provide cues to conspecifics about egg, maternal or paternal phenotypic quality. However, the relationship between protoporphyrin-based eggshell pigmentation and egg or maternal/paternal traits appears to be highly variable among species. We investigated patterns of intraspecific variation in Eurasian barn swallow (Hirundo r. rustica) protoporphyrin-based eggshell pigmentation, and analysed its association with egg and clutch characteristics, maternal/paternal phenotypic traits and parental feeding effort. Eggshell pigmentation pattern significantly varied between breeding colonies, was significantly repeatable in clutches laid by the same females in different years (intraclass correlation coefficient ranging between 0.56 and 0.63), but it was not significantly associated with egg traits, such as position in the laying sequence, egg mass, yolk testosterone concentration and antioxidant capacity. It was weakly or non-significantly associated with female and male traits (sexual ornaments), but females laying darker (higher pigment intensity) first clutches had higher hatching success, suggesting that eggshell pigment intensity may predict fitness. Nevertheless, males did not significantly modulate their parental nestling feeding effort accordingly. In addition, females with darker breast plumage colouration (a melanin-based trait related to fitness) laid highly protoporphyrin-covered eggs, suggesting the presence of a previously unappreciated link between protoporphyrin biosynthesis and plumage melanisation. Moreover, the proportion of male offspring increased in clutches originating from highly protoporphyrin-covered eggs, suggesting that parents could acquire visual cues about their future brood sex composition before egg hatching. Our results support the idea that intraspecific signalling via eggshell pigmentation is a species-specific rather than a general feature of avian taxa.
Quantitative genetics of eggshell colouration
<p>Exploring the evolutionary architecture of female sexual traits and their potential evolvability is important to understand their possible role as post-mating sexual signals. Egg colouration has been proposed to be one of these post-mating sexual signals, honestly advertising female quality in birds, especially in blue-green laying species. In this study, we used an animal model in a Bayesian framework to estimate the evolvability of multiple descriptors of blue-green egg colouration and egg size in a wild long-term monitored population of spotless starlings (<em>Sturnus unicolor</em>). Our results show low to moderate heritability (<em>h</em><sup>2 </sup>= 0.31 – 0.44) for three egg colour descriptors (blue-green chroma, chroma and lightness) and egg size. Using the coefficient of additive genetic variance (<em>CV</em><sub>A</sub>) and the evolvability (<em>I</em><sub>A</sub>) as proxies of evolutionary potential of all components of this trait, we found low values of <em>C</em><em>V</em><sub>A</sub> for all these variables, suggesting a small evolutionary potential of these phenotypic traits, contrasting to previous results reported in another blue-green egg laying species. Our results indicate a modest raw genetic material of this trait on which sexual selection can act upon and, therefore, a small probability for these traits to respond easily to selection.</p>
Data from: Plumage and eggshell colouration covary with the level of sex-specific parental contributions to nest building in birds
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Quantitative genetics of eggshell colouration
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Data from: Protoporphyrin-based eggshell pigmentation is associated with female plumage colouration and predicts offspring sex ratio in the barn swallow
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Data from: Not so colourful after all: eggshell pigments constrain avian eggshell colour space
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