5 research outputs found
Adult_morphometric_data
Year, mass, tarsus length, wing chord, for adults used in morphometrics*genotype analyse
MHC genotypes and reproductive success
Ocle-DAB1 and Ocle-DAB2 MHC genotypes for all adults in sampled background population (breeders and non-breeders), with number of chicks each individual has produced
DAB2_Amino_Acid_Matrix
Number of amino acid substitutions between Ocle-DAB2 allele pairings
Early origin of sweet perception in the songbird radiation
From savory to sweet
Seeing a bird eat nectar from a flower is a common sight in our world. The ability to detect sugars, however, is not ancestral in the bird lineage, where most species were carnivorous. Toda
et al.
looked at receptors within the largest group of birds, the passerines or songbirds, and found that the emergence of sweet detection involved a single shift in a receptor for umami (see the Perspective by Barker). This ancient change facilitated sugar detection not just in nectar feeding birds, but also across the songbird group, and in a way that was different from, though convergent with, that in hummingbirds.
Science
, abf6505, this issue p.
226
; see also abj6746, p.
154
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