Journal ArticleDOI
An experimental study of co-evolution between the cuckoo, cuculus canorus, and its hosts. ii. host egg markings, chick discrimination and general discussion
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
The variation in rejection of unlike eggs among different species of suitable cuckoo hosts is not related to the current costs or benefits of rejecting cuckoos, and it is suggested that the variation represents snap shots in evolutionary time of different stages of a species.Abstract:
SUMMARY (1) There was no difference in the distinctiveness of egg markings between species that have interacted strongly with cuckoos and species that have not, nor in intra-clutch variation, nor in inter-clutch variation within a species. In Iceland, where they are isolated from cuckoos, the eggs of meadow pipits and pied/white wagtails showed no differences in intra-clutch variation, nor inter-clutch variation, from those in parasitized populations in Britain. Thus there was no evidence that host egg patterns evolve in response to cuckoos. (2) None of the four species tested discriminated against an odd chick (another species) in their nest (chaffinch, reed warbler, reed bunting, dunnock). Hosts therefore evolve discrimination against odd eggs but not against odd chicks. (3) The variation in rejection of unlike eggs among different species of suitable cuckoo hosts is not related to the current costs or benefits of rejecting cuckoo eggs. We suggest that the variation represents snap shots in evolutionary time of different stages of aread more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Biological and biomedical implications of the co-evolution of pathogens and their hosts
TL;DR: Improving the understanding of the biomedical significance of co-evolution will require changing the way in which the authors look for it, complementing the phenomenological approach traditionally favored by evolutionary biologists with the exploitation of the extensive data becoming available on the molecular biology and molecular genetics of host–pathogen interactions.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Model System for Coevolution: Avian Brood Parasitism
TL;DR: Systems in which the interacting species are few (optimally only two) provide the clearest examples of coevolution, which includes many mutualistic relationships and some parasite-host associations.
A model system of coevolution: avian brood parasitism.
TL;DR: A rigorous definition of coevolution requires that a trait in one species has evolved in response to a trait of another species, which trait was itself evolved by the first species as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Specific hypotheses on the geographic mosaic of coevolution
TL;DR: Long‐term field studies of the same interaction across multiple communities and spatially structured mathematical models are together beginning to show that coevolution may be a more important ongoing process than had been indicated by earlier empirical and theoretical studies lacking a geographic perspective.
Journal ArticleDOI
An experimental study of co-evolution between the cuckoo, cuculus canorus, and its hosts. i. host egg discrimination
TL;DR: Three results suggest that the egg discrimination by suitable hosts has evolved in response to cuckoo parasitism, and Species unsuitable as hosts mainly showed little if any rejection of model eggs unlike their own.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Arms races between and within species.
Richard Dawkins,John R. Krebs +1 more
TL;DR: The arms race concept is suggested to help to resolve three long-standing questions in evolutionary theory: one lineage may drive the other to extinction, one may reach an optimum, thereby preventing the other from doing so, and both sides may reach a mutual local optimum.
Book
The history of the countryside
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the ever-changing nature of Britain's countryside and explore both the natural and man-made features of the land - fields, highways, hedgerows, fens, marshes, rivers, heaths, coasts, woods and pastures.
Journal ArticleDOI
Cuckoos versus reed warblers: Adaptations and counteradaptations
TL;DR: Reed warblers did not discriminate against unlike chicks (another species) and did not favour either a cuckoo chick or their own chicks when these were placed in two nests side by side and experiments showed that host discrimination selects for egg mimicry by cuckoos.
Journal ArticleDOI
An experimental study of co-evolution between the cuckoo, cuculus canorus, and its hosts. i. host egg discrimination
TL;DR: Three results suggest that the egg discrimination by suitable hosts has evolved in response to cuckoo parasitism, and Species unsuitable as hosts mainly showed little if any rejection of model eggs unlike their own.
Journal ArticleDOI
An Experimental and Teleonomic Investigation of Avian Brood Parasitism
TL;DR: Avian brood parasitism, the phenomenon in which certain birds, the parasites, deposit their eggs in the nests of other birds, their hosts, is especially well suited to teleonomic studies since it provides a system in which the presence or absence of relatively obvious adaptations can be examined in two interacting genetic lineages.