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Breeding Biology And Longevity Of Russet-Crowned Motmots In Central Mexico, Troy Murphy, Vanya Rohwer, Edwin Scholes Apr 2015

Breeding Biology And Longevity Of Russet-Crowned Motmots In Central Mexico, Troy Murphy, Vanya Rohwer, Edwin Scholes

Troy G Murphy

Motmots, with their distinctive racketed-tails, represent one of the most easily recognized tropical birds, yet little is known about the basic natural history of most species in the family Momotidae. We report basic breeding biology and longevity of Russet-crowned Motmots (Momotus mexicanus), a medium-sized Neotropical bird that ranges from northwest Mexico to central Guatemala. We monitored nest success of eight pairs from 1 May to 17 July 1998 in tropical deciduous forests in central Mexico. Motmots laid an average of 4.1 eggs and incubated for approximately 20 d. Four of eight nests fledged young. Of these four nests, …


The Evolution Of Reproductive Effort In Squamate Reptiles: Costs, Trade- Offs, And Assumptions Reconsidered, Peter Niewiarowski, Arthur Dunham Mar 2015

The Evolution Of Reproductive Effort In Squamate Reptiles: Costs, Trade- Offs, And Assumptions Reconsidered, Peter Niewiarowski, Arthur Dunham

Dr. Peter H. Niewiarowski

We evaluated Shine and Schwarzkopf's (ss) model of the evolution of reproductive effort (RE) in squamate reptiles.


A Model For Evaluating Time Constraints On Short-Term Reproductive Success In Altricial Birds1, Larry Clark Jan 1988

A Model For Evaluating Time Constraints On Short-Term Reproductive Success In Altricial Birds1, Larry Clark

Larry Clark

We develop a simple single dimension model incorporating the time and energy commitments of breeding altricial birds in an effort to understand the evolutionary constraints on parental care. We chose time as the dimension of preference, because it is a naturally bounded constraint, e.g., length of day or breeding season. The utility of the model was evaluated by comparing simulations of time allocation of various breeding scenarios for the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) to field data. The structure of the model may prove useful in determining the evolutionary constraints on parental care imposed by the developmental pattern of chicks.