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Probing the Limits of Egg Recognition Using Egg Rejection Experiments Along Phenotypic Gradients
Published on: August 22, 2018
Sources of behavioral deviation modeled by early color preferences in quail. III. Developmental stability and
1Research Department, Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas 66601.
Abstract:
Successful artificial selection of quail (C. coturnix japonica) for divergent early approach preferences for, and imprintabilities to, the wavelength characteristics of otherwise identical visual stimuli decreased the trait's developmental stability. The developmental error that resulted from selecting for extreme initial preferences was associated with enhanced imprintabilities. Conversely, the developmental error that resulted from selecting for extreme imprintabilities was associated with enhanced expression of directional gene effects in extreme initial preferences. The data are attributed to selectively relaxed normative canalization of trait development, and to related enhanced expression of genetic, environmental, and stochastic influences in trait deviations.
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