"With this mimicry, the bird imitates dangerous predators of the host birds, so that they keep their distance instead of attacking," says Professor Jochen Wolf from LMU Munich. Together with researchers at CIBIO , the evolutionary biologist has investigated the genetic foundations of the variant coloring, which is limited to females and emerged over the long evolutionary arms race between host and cuckoo.
The researchers also showed that a sister species of the cuckoo, the Oriental cuckoo, possesses the same color morphs and mutations."Consequently, the mutations already existed in a common ancestor and are therefore older than the speciation," says Wolf. The evolutionary biologist sees this as a strong indicator that the rarer variant does actually always have an advantage: Where there are two variants, the better one normally wins out.
Mating And Breeding Genetics Dogs Evolutionary Biology Bird Flu Research Zoology Agriculture And Food
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