La Tour du Valat

Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

Titre :	Yet even more ways to dress eggs
Auteurs :	Andrew G. Gosler, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	British Birds (99(7) JUL 2006)
Article en page(s) :	338-353
Résumé :	Traditionally, it has always been assumed that the reason for the patterns on birds' eggs is essentially visual - chiefly for the purposes of avoiding predators (crypsis) or, in the case of cuckoos, to mimic the eggs of their host. This paper explores the idea that the patterning found on the eggs of many species that have no apparent need for their eggs to carry visual signals is essentially functional. Data from the long-term study of Great Tits Parus major in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, suggest that pigment acts as a structural adaptation for the eggshell, and that it compensates for thinner areas of the shell, which in turn relate to the availability of calcium prior to and during egg-laying. This paper was presented originally as the 54th Bernard Tucker Memorial Lecture, given to the Oxford Ornithological Society and the Ashmolean Natural History Society, in November 2004.

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