Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites

Parasitic birds and their hosts engage in a coevolutionary arms race in which hosts have evolved fine egg disenmination that has in turn selected for sophisticated egg mimicry in many parasites. Paradoxically, however, very few have evolved chick mimicry. This has been traditionally interpreted as e...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Redondo, Tomás
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:1993
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/36748
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/36748
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Brood parasitism
Parental care
Evolution
Reproduction
Ayes
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spelling Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasitesRedondo, TomásBrood parasitismParental careEvolutionReproductionAyesParasitic birds and their hosts engage in a coevolutionary arms race in which hosts have evolved fine egg disenmination that has in turn selected for sophisticated egg mimicry in many parasites. Paradoxically, however, very few have evolved chick mimicry. This has been traditionally interpreted as evidence that hosts fail to discriminate between chicks baus of the existence of an evolutionary lag or equilibrium (costs) in the host-parasite arms race. Here, I show that none of these hypotheses can satisfactorily explain the nearly total lack of chick mimicry. Alternatively, parasitic chicks may be highly constrained to evolve mimicry of host young when both belong to phylogenetically-distant taxa with very different developmental pathways. Data on genomic divergence from DNA hybridization studies support this possibility. I suggest that nonmimetic parasites prevent rejection by exploiting a set of “imperfect’ behavioural mechanisms in hosts. First, perceptual and developmental constraints, among other factors, limit the efficiency of chick-recognition mechanisms, particularly prior to fledging. The scarce evidence available on chick discrimimition across different bird groups is consistent with this assumption. Second, nonmimctic parasites might evolve manipulative signals that elicit preferential care by hosts to compensate for their odd appearance, in order to decouple the recognition and rejection mechanisms. Some experimental and observational data suggest that hosts may favour parasitic chicks over conspecific young of similar characteristics. Thus, unless we take into consideration the proximate mechanisms involved, it will not be possible to obtain a comprehensive view of this problem from an evolutionaryPeer reviewedSociedad Española de Etología201120111993info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501http://hdl.handle.net/10261/36748reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/367482026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
title Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
spellingShingle Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
Redondo, Tomás
Brood parasitism
Parental care
Evolution
Reproduction
Ayes
title_short Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
title_full Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
title_fullStr Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
title_full_unstemmed Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
title_sort Exploitation of host mechanism for parental care by avian brood parasites
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Redondo, Tomás
author Redondo, Tomás
author_facet Redondo, Tomás
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Brood parasitism
Parental care
Evolution
Reproduction
Ayes
topic Brood parasitism
Parental care
Evolution
Reproduction
Ayes
description Parasitic birds and their hosts engage in a coevolutionary arms race in which hosts have evolved fine egg disenmination that has in turn selected for sophisticated egg mimicry in many parasites. Paradoxically, however, very few have evolved chick mimicry. This has been traditionally interpreted as evidence that hosts fail to discriminate between chicks baus of the existence of an evolutionary lag or equilibrium (costs) in the host-parasite arms race. Here, I show that none of these hypotheses can satisfactorily explain the nearly total lack of chick mimicry. Alternatively, parasitic chicks may be highly constrained to evolve mimicry of host young when both belong to phylogenetically-distant taxa with very different developmental pathways. Data on genomic divergence from DNA hybridization studies support this possibility. I suggest that nonmimetic parasites prevent rejection by exploiting a set of “imperfect’ behavioural mechanisms in hosts. First, perceptual and developmental constraints, among other factors, limit the efficiency of chick-recognition mechanisms, particularly prior to fledging. The scarce evidence available on chick discrimimition across different bird groups is consistent with this assumption. Second, nonmimctic parasites might evolve manipulative signals that elicit preferential care by hosts to compensate for their odd appearance, in order to decouple the recognition and rejection mechanisms. Some experimental and observational data suggest that hosts may favour parasitic chicks over conspecific young of similar characteristics. Thus, unless we take into consideration the proximate mechanisms involved, it will not be possible to obtain a comprehensive view of this problem from an evolutionary
publishDate 1993
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 1993
2011
2011
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/36748
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/36748
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Sociedad Española de Etología
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Sociedad Española de Etología
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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