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Article
First observation of a brood patch on a male sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystina)
Nest care and brooding in sunbirds (Nectariniidae) is thought to be performed exclusively by females. Here, we provide the first evidence that male sunbirds might help with brooding. During a ringing session i...
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Article
Open AccessPterosaur melanosomes support signalling functions for early feathers
Remarkably well-preserved soft tissues in Mesozoic fossils have yielded substantial insights into the evolution of feathers1. New evidence of branched feathers in pterosaurs suggests that feathers originated in t...
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Article
Open AccessSubstrate thermal properties influence ventral brightness evolution in ectotherms
The thermal environment can affect the evolution of morpho-behavioral adaptations of ectotherms. Heat is transferred from substrates to organisms by conduction and reflected radiation. Because brightness influ...
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Article
Open AccessEvidence corroborates identity of isolated fossil feather as a wing covert of Archaeopteryx
The historic fossil feather from the Jurassic Solnhofen has played a pivotal but controversial role in our evolutionary understanding of dinosaurs and birds. Recently, a study confirmed the diagnostic morpholo...
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Article
Open AccessExposure to UV radiance predicts repeated evolution of concealed black skin in birds
Plumage is among the most well-studied components of integumentary colouration. However, plumage conceals most skin in birds, and as a result the presence, evolution and function of skin colour remains unexplo...
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Egg pigmentation probably has an early Archosaurian origin
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Fifty shades of white: how white feather brightness differs among species
White colouration is a common and important component of animal visual signalling and camouflage, but how and why it varies across species is poorly understood. White is produced by wavelength-independent and ...
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Article
Open AccessA bony-crested Jurassic dinosaur with evidence of iridescent plumage highlights complexity in early paravian evolution
The Jurassic Yanliao theropods have offered rare glimpses of the early paravian evolution and particularly of bird origins, but, with the exception of the bizarre scansoriopterygids, they have shown similar sk...
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Open AccessRainbow peacock spiders inspire miniature super-iridescent optics
Colour produced by wavelength-dependent light scattering is a key component of visual communication in nature and acts particularly strongly in visual signalling by structurally-coloured animals during courtsh...
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Beyond colour: consistent variation in near infrared and solar reflectivity in sunbirds (Nectariniidae)
The visible spectrum represents a fraction of the sun’s radiation, a large portion of which is within the near infrared (NIR). However, wavelengths outside of the visible spectrum that are reflected by coloure...
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Mechanisms of antimicrobial defense in avian eggs
One of the greatest threats to the survival of avian eggs is the risk of infection by microbes; as such, a large number of parental defense mechanisms have evolved in response to the decreased fitness imposed ...
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Experimental shifts in egg–nest contrasts do not alter egg rejection responses in an avian host–brood parasite system
Obligate brood parasitic birds exploit their hosts to provide care for unrelated young in the nest. Potential hosts can reduce the cost of parasitism by rejecting foreign eggs from the nest. Observational, co...
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Article
Melanosome evolution indicates a key physiological shift within feathered dinosaurs
Sampling of extant and fossil amniotes reveals that the diversity of melanosome morphologies increased sharply around the time of the origin of pinnate feathers in maniraptoran dinosaurs (the lineage leading t...
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Skin pigmentation provides evidence of convergent melanism in extinct marine reptiles
Dark melanin pigment was detected in the fossilized skin of three distantly related marine reptiles (a leatherback turtle, mosasaur and ichthyosaur); benefits of thermoregulation and/or crypsis may have contri...
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New evidence on the colour and nature of the isolated Archaeopteryx feather
Archaeopteryx has been regarded as an icon of evolution ever since its discovery from the Late Jurassic limestone deposits of Solnhofen, Germany in 1861. Here we report the first evidence of colour from Archaeopt...
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Experimental evidence that kee** eggs dry is a mechanism for the antimicrobial effects of avian incubation
Avian incubation dramatically reduces the abundance and diversity of microbial assemblages on eggshells, and this effect has been hypothesized as an adaptive explanation for partial incubation, the bouts of in...
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Open AccessDifferential deposition of antimicrobial proteins in blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) clutches by laying order and male attractiveness
Female birds can influence offspring fitness by varying the relative quantities of egg components they deposit within and between clutches. Antimicrobial proteins (lysozyme, ovotransferrin, and avidin) are sig...
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Article
Do feather-degrading bacteria affect sexually selected plumage color?
Models of parasite-mediated sexual selection propose that males with more elaborate sexual traits will have fewer parasites. These models have generally been tested using metazoan or protozoan parasites of the...
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Juvenile coloration of Florida Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) is sexually dichromatic and correlated with condition
The Florida Scrub-Jay is a monogamous cooperative breeder in which both males and females display extensive structurally based blue plumage. Juveniles of this species exhibit blue tail and wing feathers that t...
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Microbial Diversity of Wild Bird Feathers Revealed throughCulture-Based and Culture-Independent Techniques
Despite recent interest in the interactions between birds and environmental microbes, the identities of the bacteria that inhabit the feathers of wild birds remain largely unknown. We used culture-based and cu...
