Post-hatch heat warms adult beaks: irreversible physiological plasticity in Japanese quail.

ABSTRACT: Across taxa, the early rearing environment contributes to adult morphological and physiological variation. For example, in birds, environmental temperature plays a key role in shaping bill size and clinal trends across latitudinal/thermal gradients. Such patterns support the role of the bill as a thermal window and in thermal balance. It remains unknown whether bill size and thermal function are reversibly plastic. We raised Japanese quail in warm (30°C) or cold (15°C) environments and then at a common intermediate temperature. We predicted that birds raised in cold temperatures would develop smaller bills than warm-reared individuals, and that regulation of blood flow to the bill in response to changing temperatures would parallel the bill's role in thermal balance. Cold-reared birds deve

SUBMITTER: Burness G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3735260 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature