Publications by authors named "Samantha L Rutledge"
Article Synopsis
- The brown-headed cowbird is a brood parasite that lays eggs that differ from the eggs of its diverse host species, and the reasons behind this are not fully understood.
- Researchers suggest that the cowbird's eggshell characteristics have evolved through diffuse coevolution, influenced by the selective pressures of the entire community of host species rather than just individual host-parasite pairings.
- By analyzing eggshell reflectance data from 43 different host species, the study finds that cowbird eggshell traits can be predicted based on the eggshell characteristics and rejection tendencies of those hosts, highlighting a broader evolutionary trend in parasite-host relationships.
