European barn swallows use melanin pigments to color their feathers brown
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چکیده
Kevin J. McGraw, Rebecca J. Safran, Matthew R. Evans, and Kazumasa Wakamatsu Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter in Cornwall, Tremough Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR5 0XT, UK, and Fujita Health University, School of Health Sciences, Toyoake, Aichi 470-1192, Japan
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Reply to : European barn swallows use melanin pigments to color their feathers brown
McGraw et al. (2004) have recently presented evidence that barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) feathers from the forehead and throat do not contain carotenoids, and melanins are the determinants of their chestnut coloration. This contradicts evidence I presented in a book entitled The colour of flight: carotenoids in bird plumage (Stradi, 1995, 1998), where a tridimensional high-performance liquid c...
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