Avian obligate brood parasitic lineages evolved variable complex polycrystalline structures to build tougher eggshells.

ABSTRACT: Avian brood parasites and their hosts display varied egg-puncture behaviors, exerting asymmetric co-evolutionary selection pressures on eggshells' breaking strength. We investigated eggshell structural and textural characteristics that may improve its mechanical performance. Parasitic eggshell calcified layers showed complex ultra- and microstructural patterns. However, stronger parasitic eggshells are not due to lower textural severity (characterized by lower preferred crystallographic orientation, larger local grain misorientation and smaller Kearns factor), but rather to grain boundary (GB) microstructure characteristics within the eggshell outermost layer (palisade layer, PL). Accordingly, the thicker the PL and the more complex the GB pathways are, the tougher the parasitic eggshells

SUBMITTER: Lopez AV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10746509 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature