The hypothesis that ornaments can honestly signal quality only if their expression is
condition-dependent has dominated the study of the evolution and function of colour traits …

Climate warming leads to a decrease in biodiversity. Organisms can deal with the new
prevailing environmental conditions by one of two main routes, namely evolving new genetic …

We studied polymorphism in all species of birds that are presently known to show
intraspecific variation in plumage colour. At least three main mechanisms have been put …

Gloger's rule is usually interpreted as predicting darker coloured animals in warmer and
more humid/vegetated regions. The relative importance of temperature and rainfall or …

1. Melanin pigments provide the most widespread source of coloration in vertebrates, but the
adaptive function of such traits remains poorly known. 2. In a wild population of tawny owls …

We studied variation in plumage colour and life history in a population of tawny owls (Strix
aluco) in southern Finland, using 26 years of data on individually marked male and female …

Parasites are expected to exert long-term costs on host fecundity and longevity.
Understanding the consequences of heritable polymorphic variation in disease defence in …

Camouflage may promote fitness of given phenotypes in different environments. The tawny
owl (Strix aluco) is a color polymorphic species with a gray and brown morph resident in the …

The adaptive function of melanin‐based coloration is a long‐standing debate. A recent
genetic model suggested that pleiotropy could account for covariations between …

One hypothesis for the maintenance of genetic variation states that alternative genotypes
are adapted to different environmental conditions (ie, genotype-by-environment interaction …