One of the outstanding challenges for evolutionary biologists is to understand how
developmental plasticity can influence the evolutionary process. Developmental plasticity …

Over the past decade, birds have proven to be excellent models to study hormone-mediated
maternal effects in an evolutionary framework. Almost all these studies focus on the function …

Physiological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds is the most current and comprehensive
account of research on avian reproduction. It develops two unique themes: the consideration …

When faced with changing environments, organisms rapidly mount physiological and
behavioural responses, accommodating new environmental inputs in their functioning. The …

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the physiology, ecology, and behavior of
hormones in avian eggs. The main source of hormones found in avian eggs is the maturing …

Environmentally dependent behavioral variation may play a critical role in several ecological
and evolutionary phenomena, in particular, rapid adaptation to novel and changing …

An important question in ecology is how mechanistic processes occurring among individuals
drive large-scale patterns of community formation and change. Here we show that in two …

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews maternal hormones in avian eggs, their effects,
their regulating mechanisms, and their potential Darwinian function, ie, the way in which …

Differences in relative fitness of male and female offspring across ecological and social
environments should favour the evolution of sex-determining mechanisms that enable …

How much effort to expend in any one bout of reproduction is among the most important
decisions made by an individual that breeds more than once. According to life-history theory …