New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs
We compared the shape and eggshell thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs with those of its closest relatives, the Razorbill Alca torda , Common Guillemot Uria aalge and Brünnich's Guillemot Uria lomvia , in order to gain additional insights into the breeding biology of the extinct Grea...
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crwiley:10.1111/ibi.12820 2024-06-02T07:54:36+00:00 New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs Birkhead, Tim Russell, Douglas Garbout, Amin Attard, Marie Thompson, Jamie Jackson, Duncan Leverhulme Trust Natural History Museum 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12820 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ibi.12820 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/ibi.12820 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ibis volume 162, issue 4, page 1345-1354 ISSN 0019-1019 1474-919X journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12820 2024-05-03T10:40:13Z We compared the shape and eggshell thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs with those of its closest relatives, the Razorbill Alca torda , Common Guillemot Uria aalge and Brünnich's Guillemot Uria lomvia , in order to gain additional insights into the breeding biology of the extinct Great Auk. The egg of the Great Auk was most similar in shape to that of Brünnich's Guillemot. The absolute thickness of the Great Auk eggshell was greater than that of the Common Guillemot and Razorbill egg, which is as expected given its greater size, but the relative shell thickness at the equator and pointed end (compared with the blunt end) was more similar to that of the Common Guillemot. On the basis of these and other results we suggest that Great Auk incubated in an upright posture in open habitat with little or no nest, where its pyriform egg shape provided stability and allowed safe manoeuvrability during incubation. On the basis of a recent phylogeny of the Alcidae, we speculate that a single brood patch, a pyriform egg and upright incubation posture, as in the Great Auk and the two Uria guillemots, is the ancestral state, and that the Razorbill – the Great Auk's closest relative – secondarily evolved two brood patches and an elliptical egg as adaptations for horizontal incubation, which provides flexibility in incubation site selection, allowing breeding in enclosed spaces such as crevices, burrows or under boulders, as well as on open ledges. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alca torda brünnich's guillemot common guillemot Great auk Pinguinus impennis Razorbill Uria aalge Uria lomvia uria Wiley Online Library Burrows ENVELOPE(163.650,163.650,-74.300,-74.300) Ibis 162 4 1345 1354 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
We compared the shape and eggshell thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs with those of its closest relatives, the Razorbill Alca torda , Common Guillemot Uria aalge and Brünnich's Guillemot Uria lomvia , in order to gain additional insights into the breeding biology of the extinct Great Auk. The egg of the Great Auk was most similar in shape to that of Brünnich's Guillemot. The absolute thickness of the Great Auk eggshell was greater than that of the Common Guillemot and Razorbill egg, which is as expected given its greater size, but the relative shell thickness at the equator and pointed end (compared with the blunt end) was more similar to that of the Common Guillemot. On the basis of these and other results we suggest that Great Auk incubated in an upright posture in open habitat with little or no nest, where its pyriform egg shape provided stability and allowed safe manoeuvrability during incubation. On the basis of a recent phylogeny of the Alcidae, we speculate that a single brood patch, a pyriform egg and upright incubation posture, as in the Great Auk and the two Uria guillemots, is the ancestral state, and that the Razorbill – the Great Auk's closest relative – secondarily evolved two brood patches and an elliptical egg as adaptations for horizontal incubation, which provides flexibility in incubation site selection, allowing breeding in enclosed spaces such as crevices, burrows or under boulders, as well as on open ledges. |
author2 |
Leverhulme Trust Natural History Museum |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Birkhead, Tim Russell, Douglas Garbout, Amin Attard, Marie Thompson, Jamie Jackson, Duncan |
spellingShingle |
Birkhead, Tim Russell, Douglas Garbout, Amin Attard, Marie Thompson, Jamie Jackson, Duncan New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs |
author_facet |
Birkhead, Tim Russell, Douglas Garbout, Amin Attard, Marie Thompson, Jamie Jackson, Duncan |
author_sort |
Birkhead, Tim |
title |
New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs |
title_short |
New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs |
title_full |
New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs |
title_fullStr |
New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs |
title_full_unstemmed |
New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs |
title_sort |
new insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of great auk pinguinus impennis eggs |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12820 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ibi.12820 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/ibi.12820 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(163.650,163.650,-74.300,-74.300) |
geographic |
Burrows |
geographic_facet |
Burrows |
genre |
Alca torda brünnich's guillemot common guillemot Great auk Pinguinus impennis Razorbill Uria aalge Uria lomvia uria |
genre_facet |
Alca torda brünnich's guillemot common guillemot Great auk Pinguinus impennis Razorbill Uria aalge Uria lomvia uria |
op_source |
Ibis volume 162, issue 4, page 1345-1354 ISSN 0019-1019 1474-919X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12820 |
container_title |
Ibis |
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162 |
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4 |
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1345 |
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1354 |
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1800741243847704576 |