Host-Parasite Arms Races and Rapid Changes in Bird Egg Appearance

@article{Spottiswoode2012HostParasiteAR,
  title={Host-Parasite Arms Races and Rapid Changes in Bird Egg Appearance},
  author={Claire N. Spottiswoode and Martin Stevens},
  journal={The American Naturalist},
  year={2012},
  volume={179},
  pages={633 - 648}
}
Coevolutionary arms races are a powerful force driving evolution, adaptation, and diversification. They can generate phenotypic polymorphisms that render it harder for a coevolving parasite or predator to exploit any one individual of a given species. In birds, egg polymorphisms should be an effective defense against mimetic brood parasites and are extreme in the African tawny-flanked prinia (Prinia subflava) and its parasite, the cuckoo finch (Anomalospiza imberbis). Here we use models of… 
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