Dark colours play a crucial role in regulating temperatures in many biological systems. This is particularly common for animals like reptiles, which rely on environmental sources of heat to keep themselves warm.
Darker colours absorb more heat from sunlight, and animals with these colours are more commonly found in colder climates with less sunlight. This broad pattern is known as Bogert’s rule.
Birds’ eggs are useful for studying this pattern because the developing embryo can only survive in a narrow range of temperatures. But eggs cannot regulate their own temperature and, in most cases, the parent does it by sitting atop the clutch of eggs.
In colder environments, where the risk of predators is lower and the risk of chilling in cold temperatures is greater, parents spend less time away from the nest.
We predicted that if eggshell colour does play an important role in regulating the temperature of the embryo, birds living in colder environments should have darker eggs.
The average colour of eggshells in different areas around the world. Wisocki et al. 2019 ‘The global distribution of avian eggshell colours suggests a thermoregulatory benefit of darker pigmentation’, Nature Ecology & Evolution, Author provided
To test the prediction, we measured eggshell brightness and colour for 634 species of birds. That’s more than 5% of all bird species, representing 36 of the 40 large groups of species called orders.
We mapped these within each species’ breeding range and found that eggs in the coldest environments (those with the least sunlight) were significantly darker. This was true for all nest types.
We also conducted experiments using domestic chicken eggs to confirm that darker eggshells heated up more rapidly and maintained their incubation temperatures for longer than white eggshells.
Our results show that darker eggshells are found in places with less sunlight and lower temperatures, and that these darker colours may help keep the developing embryo warm.
How future climate change will affect eggshell appearance, as well as the timing of reproduction and incubation behaviour, will be an important and fruitful avenue for future research.
For most animals, reproduction is straightforward: some species lay eggs, while others give birth to live babies.
But our recent research uncovered a fascinating mix between the two modes of reproduction. In an Australian skink, we observed the first example of both egg-laying and live-bearing within a single litter for any backboned animal.
This suggests some lizards can “hedge their bets” reproductively, taking a punt on both eggs and live-born babies to improve overall survival chances for offspring.
Most vertebrate species (animals with a backbone) fall neatly into one of two distinctly different reproductive categories.
Oviparous species are egg-layers. These eggs may undergo external fertilisation – such as in spawning fish – or are fertilised and shelled internally, like those of reptiles and birds. Oviparous embryos rely on egg yolk as a source of nutrition to continue development until hatching.
In contrast, viviparous species are live bearers that carry their young to term. Some live-bearing species, including humans, support embryonic development internally via a placenta. Egg-laying is ancestral, meaning that modern live-bearers have descended from egg-laying ancestors.
Physiologically, the evolution of live birth from egg-laying is no mean feat. This transition requires a whole suite of changes, sometimes including the evolution of a placenta – an entirely new specialist organ – as well as loss of the hard outer eggshell, and keeping the embryo inside the body for a longer time.
The placenta is a highly complex organ. One of its jobs is to transfer nutrition to the developing baby. from www.shutterstock.com
It’s easy to see why reptiles, as a group, are fascinating models for studying how live birth evolves from egg-laying.
Of particular interest are two Australian skinks that have both live-bearing and egg-laying individuals (known as being bimodally reproductive). These lizards are incredibly valuable to evolutionary biologists as they offer a snapshot into evolutionary processes in action.
The three-toed skink Saiphos equalis is one such species. Reproduction in S. equalisvaries geographically: populations around Sydney lay eggs, while those further north give birth to live young.
Whether individuals are live-bearing or egg-laying seems to be genetically determined: when researchers swap their environmental conditions (by moving them from one site to another), the females retain their original reproductive strategy.
Our latest research shows this lizard is intriguing in another completely unexpected way.
We observed a live-bearing female that laid three eggs, and then gave birth to a living baby from the same litter weeks later. We incubated two of the eggs, one of which hatched to produce a healthy baby.
A live-bearing female S. equalis in our laboratory colony laid three eggs, one of which hatched to produce a healthy baby. Camilla Whittington
This finding is remarkable for two reasons. First, as far as we are aware, this is the first example of both egg-laying and live birth within a single litter for any vertebrate.
Second, in some cases, individuals may be capable of “switching” between reproductive modes. In other words, as laying eggs and giving birth each come with their own advantages and disadvantages, individuals may be able to “choose” which option best suits the current situation.
Closer look at eggshells
To better understand this reproductive phenomenon, we investigated the structure of the egg coverings of these unusual embryos in minute detail (using an advanced technology called scanning electron microscopy).
We found that in this litter, the egg-coverings were thinner than those of normal egg-laying skinks and had structural characteristics that overlapped with those of both egg-layers and live-bearers (which have thinner coverings that are greatly reduced).
Egg coverings of S. equalis consist of an outer crust (C) and an inner shell membrane (SM). We compared the structure and thicknesses of these layers of both egg-laying (A) and live-bearing (B) S. equalis to identify similarities with our ‘unusual’ embryos (C). Melanie Laird
How evolution works
We still don’t know the trigger that caused this female to lay eggs and give birth to a live baby from the same pregnancy.
However, our findings suggest that species “in transition” between egg-laying and live bearing may hedge their bets reproductively before a true transition to live birth evolves.
Being able to switch between reproductive modes may be advantageous, particularly in changing or uncertain environments.
For example, extreme cold, drought or the presence of predators can be risky for vulnerable eggs exposed to the environment, meaning that mothers that can carry offspring to term may have the upper hand.
In contrast, lengthy pregnancies can be taxing on the mother, so depositing offspring earlier as an egg may be beneficial in some situations.
We suggest that other species in which live birth has evolved from egg-laying relatively recently may also use flexible reproductive tactics.
Further research into this small Australian lizard, which seems to occupy the grey area between live birth and egg-laying, will help us determine how and why species make major reproductive leaps.
Banded Stilts feed on a range of invertebrates (including brine shrimp and snails) at saline wetlands across southern Australia. Ben Parkhurst, Author provided
The hot, dry Australian desert may not come to mind as an ideal location for waterbirds to breed, but some species wait years for the opportunity to do just that.
New research has shed light on one of Australia’s most enigmatic birds, the banded stilt. This pigeon-sized shorebird has long been a source of intrigue due to its bizarre and extreme breeding behaviour. They fly hundreds or thousands of kilometres from coastal wetlands to lay eggs that are 50-80% of their body mass in normally dry inland desert salt lakes, such as Lake Eyre, on the rare occasions they are inundated by flooding rain.
Such behaviour has been a mystery for decades; described for the first time in 1930, just 30 breeding events had been documented for the entire species in the following 80 years.
To investigate this behaviour, and to assess the stilts’ conservation status, we began a study in 2011, during which I was based in outback South Australia, ready to jump into a small plane after every large desert rainfall. We also satellite-tagged nearly 60 banded stilts, using miniature solar powered devices around half the size of a matchbox.
Sixty banded stilts were tagged with solar-powered satellite trackers. Author provided
This focused survey effort – which required overcoming the logistical challenges of very remote sites, knee-deep mud, heat and flies – has revealed major new insights into how banded stilts breed and the incredible distances they travel: we recorded one bird that flew 2,200km in just two nights.
Fast movers
The research revealed that, on average, banded stilts respond within eight days to unpredictable distant flooding of outback salt lakes. They leave their more predictable coastal habitat to travel 1,000-2,000km in overnight flights to arrive at the newly flooded lakes and take advantage of freshly hatched brine shrimp.
Brine shrimp eggs lie dormant in the lakes’ dry salt crust for years or decades between floods, but upon wetting they hatch in their billions, creating a “brine shrimp soup” – a rich but short-lived banquet for the nesting stilts.
Banded Stilt nests, with clutches of eggs representing over 50-80% of female body weight, litter an island in recently flooded Lake Ballard, in the Western Australian Goldfields 2014. Lynn Pedler, Author provided
During the six-year study, we detected this nomadic movement and nesting behaviour seven times more often than it had been recorded in the previous 80 years. Although the banded stilts were previously thought to require large once-in-a-decade rains to initiate inland breeding, we found that small numbers of banded stilts respond to almost any salt lake inundation, arriving, mating and laying eggs equivalent of 50-80% of their body weight, despite high chances of the salt lake water drying before the eggs could hatch or chicks fledge.
Many times the eggs were abandoned as salt lake water dried. On other occasions some chicks survived long enough to learn to fly – although late-hatching chicks ran out of food or water and starved.
Once we found out that stilts needed much less rain to breed than previously thought, we used satellite imagery to reconstruct the past 30 years of flooding for ten salt lakes in South and Western Australia.
These models showed that conditions have been suitable for breeding more than twice as often as breeding events have actually been recorded. It seems that stilts’ nesting behaviour is so remote and hard to predict that scientists have been missing half the times it has happened.
Threats to banded stilt survival
Salt lakes in northwestern Australia are vital for banded stilts’ breeding. Our satellite tracking showed that birds from across the continent can reach these lakes after rain. Satellite images also suggested these lakes fill with water much more frequently than southern breeding sites.
These lakes are also largely free of native silver gulls (the common seagulls seen around our cities), which are predators of stilt chicks.
Silver Gulls fighting over a banded stilt chick on Lake Eyre. These gulls found in Australian cities also fly inland after rain and can decimate some Banded Stilt breeding attempts – eating thousands of eggs and chicks. Reece Pedler, Author provided
But other southern Australian breeding lakes are dramatically affected by gull predation. In one instance, a colony of 9,500 pairs (around 30,000 eggs) had less than 5% of its chicks survive, despite abundant water and brine shrimp on offer. Observations made near the colony suggested that a chick was being eaten by gulls every two minutes. Nearly 900 chicks and 350 eggs were eaten in the 30 hours we watched the colony.
Unfortunately, even the lakes that are relatively gull-free are now under threat from human development, despite being in one of the most remote parts of the world. Lakes Disappointment, Mackay, Dora, Auld and others surrounding them in the Little Sandy and Great Sandy Deserts are the subject of plans for potash mining.
The most advanced plans relate to Lake Disappointment, where Reward Minerals plans to construct a series of drainage trenches and 4,000 hectares of evaporation ponds on the lake bed to harvest potash for use in fertilisers.
This action will create permanent brine pools in some parts of the lake, and prevent other areas from receiving any water. As surface water drains into evaporation ponds, it’s likely the first rains after a long dry spell will no longer prompt mass brine shrimp hatching. Without this brine shrimp “soup”, banded stilts cannot breed at the site.
A tiny island on Lake Torrens SA, covered by 70,000 Banded Stilt nests in 2010. Paul Wainwright, Author provided
Meanwhile, the coastal habitat that supports banded stilt for the rest of the year is also changing. Sites that are home to thousands of birds, such as parts of the Dry Creek Saltfields and Bird Lake in South Australia, have been drained in the past two years.
If both the stilts’ inland breeding and coastal refuges are under threat, how can they survive?
Lessons for managing mobile species
This research offers insight into the conservation of highly mobile species, which may travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres in a year. Banded stilts are listed as vulnerable in South Australia, but have no conservation rating in the four other states in which they are found.
Individual banded stilts appear to operate over vast spatial scales, crossing between state jurisdictions in single overnight flights. Their episodic breeding events are hard to find and even more difficult to manage. Between breeding events, long-lived adults depend on refuges around the country which are being impacted by human activity, including potentially longer, harsher dry periods from climate change into the future.
These birds epitomise adaptation to unpredictable changes in their environment, but habitat loss and a warming climate may threaten them as much as any other species.
The authors would like to acknowledge L. Pedler, M. Christie, B. Parkhurst, R. West, C. Minton, I. Stewart, M. Weston, D. Paton, B. Buttemer and the South Australian Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources, and Western Australian Department for Parks and Wildlife._
Immersion in seawater kills sea turtle eggs, suggesting that sea turtles are increasingly at risk from rising seas, according to research published today in Royal Society Open Science.
In a laboratory experiment, researchers immersed green turtle eggs in seawater for varying lengths of time. The researchers tested eggs of various ages, and then counted the number of eggs that hatched. They found that immersion for six hours reduced survival by a third.
The study partly explains reduced numbers turtle of hatchlings recorded at Raine Island, home to the largest population of green sea turtles in the world.
David Pike, lecturer in tropical biology at James Cook University and lead author of the study, said turtle nests low down on beaches could be underwater for six hours during abnormally high “king” tides or storm surges.
Michele Thums, ecologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said that given climate projections for increased severe weather events, this could mean fewer hatchlings survive in the future.
But every beach will see different impacts from rising seas, said Tim Dempster, senior lecturer in marine biology at University of Melbourne.
“You can’t just take [a…] scenario of a certain degree of warming, say that will lead to a certain amount of sea level rise, project how much land will be inundated and then project what proportion of nesting habitat will be affected,” he said.
Turtle embryos need oxygen to develop into baby turtles, and immersion in water prevents oxygen from the soil entering the eggs. The embryos effectively suffocate, a process known as “hypoxia”.
Thums said that while most turtles nest above the high tide line and are rarely immersed for six hours, “there are always inexperienced turtles that will lay further down the beach and also there is competition at high density nesting sites like Raine Island”.
Compared to the rest of the world, green sea turtles on Raine Island have a much lower level of breeding success, which could lead to a large decline in the number of breeding adults in the future.
Pike said the low level of success could be partly explained by inundation, but there were likely other factors at work.
“One possibility is that the sand is full of bacteria from all of the rotting eggs that are beneath the sand, and that any fresh eggs laid there may be exposed to bacteria that overgrow the egg and kill the embryo,” he said.
“Another possibility is that contaminants (heavy metals, pesticides) are being passed from the mother turtle to the eggs, and that may cause the embryos to die.”
The Queensland Department of Environmental Heritage and Protection is currently trying to raise low lying spots on Raine Island by moving sand. The island could lose between 7 and 27% of its area thanks to rising seas.
With Janelle Braithwaite, editor at The Conversation.
Not sure what people will think about this idea – I will look forward to your comments. The link below is to an article on how to store eggs for camping.
The authors would like to acknowledge L. Pedler, M. Christie, B. Parkhurst, R. West, C. Minton, I. Stewart, M. Weston, D. Paton, B. Buttemer and the South Australian Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources, and Western Australian Department for Parks and Wildlife._
Kevin's Walk on the Wild Side 