Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns
Competitive interactions among siblings are an important determinant of parental fitness. These are strongly influenced by relative offspring size and therefore also by the extent to which parents can influence offspring size hierarchies. The temporal pattern of hatching in an avian clutch has a lar...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:beheco:15/2/205 2023-05-15T15:44:52+02:00 Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns Cook, Mark I. Monaghan, Pat 2004-03-01 00:00:00.0 text/html http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/2/205 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg096 en eng Oxford University Press http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/2/205 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg096 Copyright (C) 2004, International Society for Behavioral Ecology Articles TEXT 2004 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg096 2016-11-16T17:19:20Z Competitive interactions among siblings are an important determinant of parental fitness. These are strongly influenced by relative offspring size and therefore also by the extent to which parents can influence offspring size hierarchies. The temporal pattern of hatching in an avian clutch has a large effect on size and developmental disparities among chicks. Hatching spread is generally assumed to be mainly determined by the onset of incubation in relation to egg laying. However, the extent to which factors other than incubation onset, such as development rate, also influence timing of hatching has received little empirical investigation. We compared incubation periods of male and female black guillemot ( Cepphus grylle ) embryos to ascertain whether the time taken for an egg to hatch varies with embryo sex. Laying date and egg mass had no significant effect on incubation time, but male embryos hatched on average a day sooner than did females. The onset of incubation and hatching spread vary in black guillemots. However, in mixed-sexed clutches in which the first-laid embryo is male, a faster development time of males should mean asynchronous hatching regardless of parental incubation regime. This was supported by empirical investigation. These results demonstrate that factors other than incubation behavior can be important in establishing avian hatching patterns. Whether these sex differences in development rate are a result of constraints on the degree of parental control, or an adaptive strategy to manipulate hatching patterns, remains to be established. Text Black guillemot Cepphus grylle HighWire Press (Stanford University) Behavioral Ecology 15 2 205 209 |
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Articles Cook, Mark I. Monaghan, Pat Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns |
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Competitive interactions among siblings are an important determinant of parental fitness. These are strongly influenced by relative offspring size and therefore also by the extent to which parents can influence offspring size hierarchies. The temporal pattern of hatching in an avian clutch has a large effect on size and developmental disparities among chicks. Hatching spread is generally assumed to be mainly determined by the onset of incubation in relation to egg laying. However, the extent to which factors other than incubation onset, such as development rate, also influence timing of hatching has received little empirical investigation. We compared incubation periods of male and female black guillemot ( Cepphus grylle ) embryos to ascertain whether the time taken for an egg to hatch varies with embryo sex. Laying date and egg mass had no significant effect on incubation time, but male embryos hatched on average a day sooner than did females. The onset of incubation and hatching spread vary in black guillemots. However, in mixed-sexed clutches in which the first-laid embryo is male, a faster development time of males should mean asynchronous hatching regardless of parental incubation regime. This was supported by empirical investigation. These results demonstrate that factors other than incubation behavior can be important in establishing avian hatching patterns. Whether these sex differences in development rate are a result of constraints on the degree of parental control, or an adaptive strategy to manipulate hatching patterns, remains to be established. |
format |
Text |
author |
Cook, Mark I. Monaghan, Pat |
author_facet |
Cook, Mark I. Monaghan, Pat |
author_sort |
Cook, Mark I. |
title |
Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns |
title_short |
Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns |
title_full |
Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns |
title_fullStr |
Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns |
title_sort |
sex differences in embryo development periods and effects on avian hatching patterns |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/2/205 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg096 |
genre |
Black guillemot Cepphus grylle |
genre_facet |
Black guillemot Cepphus grylle |
op_relation |
http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/15/2/205 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg096 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2004, International Society for Behavioral Ecology |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg096 |
container_title |
Behavioral Ecology |
container_volume |
15 |
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2 |
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205 |
op_container_end_page |
209 |
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1766379231248384000 |