Digest: Disentangling plumage and behavior contributions to iridescent signals

Evolution. 2019 Mar;73(3):623-625. doi: 10.1111/evo.13685. Epub 2019 Jan 31.

Abstract

To what extent do plumage properties and behavior interact to produce visual signals? Simpson and McGraw (2019) propose an elegant and novel experimental set-up to dissociate behavior and color and assess their relative effects in the resulting iridescent signal. They find that modification of either component leads to a modification of the resulting signal as seen by the receiver, suggesting that sexual selection acts simultaneously on both signal components.

Publication types

  • News
  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Color
  • Feathers*
  • Sexual Behavior*