Historical contingency influences the diversity of feather nanostructures in cuckoos
K. K. Norden, C. R. Cooney, F. Babarovic, M. C. Stoddard
The paper investigates how historical contingency affects feather nanostructure diversity in cuckoos, finding that specialized melanosomes are present in both metallic and drab plumage, suggesting retained traits can facilitate future evolution of metallic luster.
bioRxiv · Dec 5, 2023 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology