Lifespan, Lifetime Reproductive Performance And Paternity Loss Of Within-pair And Extra-pair Offspring In The Coal Tit Periparus Ater

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Veterinary
Article Date: 24 Sep 2008 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Female birds frequently engage in extra-pair mating behaviour and may thereby increase the genetic quality of offspring in terms of either viability or sexual attractiveness.

In contrast to the first idea, extra-pair offspring did not differ in lifespan from within-pair offspring in the socially monogamous coal tit. Moreover, in contrast to expectations, male within-pair offspring reared more social offspring over their lifetime than male extra-pair offspring.

The crucial task for future studies is to measure extra-pair fertilisation success of male offspring to test whether genetic benefits of extra-pair matings may lie in a higher sexual attractiveness of male extra-pair offspring.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

www.publishing.royalsociety.org/proceedingsb

• Additional
• References
• Citations