Markus S. Ritz

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the MADS domain originated from a region of topoisomerases IIA subunit A of extant eukaryotes, giving rise to SRF-like and MEF2-like MADS-box genes.

TL;DR: This paper tracked south polar skuas from a single breeding population at King George Island in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica) and found that 27 birds (69%) migrated to the northern Atlantic (3 regions), 10 birds (26%) to the southern Pacific Ocean (2 regions), and 2 birds wintered in the southern hemisphere.

TL;DR: Diversification of southern skuas dates between 210,000 yBP and 150,000yBP and coincides with a glacial spanning 230,000-140,000YBP, where Skuas most likely first inhabited the Antarctic continent, in the course of global cooling and increasing glaciation.

TL;DR: Analysis of long calls of brown skuas shows that differences in vocal performance reflect male's reproductive success with more successful breeders producing the more difficult calls, implying that limits on vocal performance due to motor constraints present a suitable mechanism for mate-quality recognition in nonpasserine birds.

TL;DR: Body size distribution of sympatric skuas from King George Island is clearly bimodal but overlaps considerably and hybrids cannot be identified, and numbers of mixed breeding pairs fluctuated more strongly than those of pure species pairs.