Recent LiteratureMolt in Neotropical Birds: Life History and Aging Criteria Erik I. Johnson, Jared D. Wolfe. 2018. Studies in Avian Biology, A Publication of the American Ornithological Society, Volume 51, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. xii + 400 pages, > 950

Life history accounts and taxonomic monographs are a series of publications covering a higher taxonomic group where each account is a compilation of existing knowledge detailing many aspects of a species life history. These life history accounts are extensively used by researchers, ornithologists and conservationists as a main source for the current state of knowledge of a species. Birds, being one of the more easily seen and studied taxa, have a number of specialized life history accounts where data from a wide variety of disciplines are combined into a single easily accessible resource. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO) currently manages two of these series focused on different regions of the world, Birds of North America (BNA) and Neotropical Birds (NB). Lynx Edicions has published the Handbook of Birds of the World (HBW), an extensive set of avian monographs covering every species of bird in the world. A recently announced collaboration between CLO and Lynx Edicions provides us with the opportunity to bring together the extreme detail of the life history accounts from Birds of North America with the global coverage of HBW to produce a global, in-depth treatment of every species of bird in the world. The integration of life history information from these existing projects with different underlying taxonomies presents a variety of real-world examples of the challenges to be overcome to bring these life history accounts into alignment and provide the scientific and lay communities with taxonomically accurate and up to date information. The Handbook of Birds of the World currently follows the HBW and BirdLife Taxonomic Checklist v3 (with 11,126 species recognized) while Birds of North America and Neotropical Birds both follow the eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018 (with 10,585 species recognized). Of the roughly 11,000 species of birds, nearly 9,500 are direct matches between HBW/BirdLife and Clements at the species or species to subspecies levels. The remaining concept mismatches fall into several basic categories including lump and split differences as well as differences in which subspecies are included or excluded. In this talk we will discuss the challenges we have faced with managing and merging life history accounts where the underlying taxonomies are fundamentally different. With a requirement to ensure that life history accounts remain accurate when the underlying concepts of the original sources differ, we employ a variety of processes, some very labor intensive and some requiring in-depth taxonomic knowledge to produce consolidated species accounts. Existing resources are integral to these type of integrations and in addition to the taxonomies themselves, cross-taxonomy mapping databases such as Avibase are key. Working through this process of consolidating life history accounts highlights the basic need for taxonomic management and publication toolsets built on underlying taxonomic and life history standards. Cross institutional collaboration to produce these toolsets will be key to their development and successful adoption across the biodiversity and taxonomic communities. I will also discuss and propose a set of taxonomic management tools based on taxonomic concepts, some which already exist and are used by bird taxonomists to annually update the Clements Checklist and some which need to be implemented before we can accurately manage and consolidate biodiversity information and the evolving taxonomies on which those data are based.

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Understanding Evolution of Plumages and Other Cyclic Avian Life-History Phenomena: Role for an Improved Molt Terminology

The Condor ◽

10.1093/condor/106.1.196 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 106 (1) ◽

pp. 196-198 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Theunis Piersma

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Cyclic Life ◽

Center Stage ◽

Evolutionary Studies ◽

Avian Biology ◽

Evolutionary Interpretation

Abstract Birds show quite distinct changes in both external and internal appearance. An evolutionary interpretation of these cyclic life-history phenomena would benefit from a system of description aimed at mapping shared ancestries of arguably the “easiest” of traits: the molts and seasonal plumage changes. By 1959, Humphrey and Parkes had already provided the basis of such a system, but its development and application, especially with regard to the confusing first plumage cycle, by Howell et al. (2003), adds considerably to its power. I hope this leads to an upsurge of evolutionary studies of molt and plumage cycles that in turn provide the basis for analyses of other aspects of the flexible phenotype of birds. With such an increase, the study of molts and plumages could once again be at center stage of avian biology. Entendiendo la Evolución de los Plumajes y Otros Fenómenos Cíclicos de las Historias de Vida de las Aves: El Papel de una Terminología Mejorada para la Muda Resumen. Las aves muestran cambios bastante marcados en su apariencia externa e interna. Una interpretación evolutiva de estos fenómenos cíclicos de las historias de vida se beneficiaría de un sistema de descripción dirigido a mapear formas ancestrales compartidas de lo que se podría decir son los caracteres más “fáciles”: las mudas y los cambios estacionales del plumaje. Hacia 1959, Humphrey y Parkes ya habían establecido la base de un sistema de este tipo, pero su desarrollo y aplicación, especialmente con respecto al confuso primer ciclo del plumaje, por parte de Howell et al. (2003) incrementan considerablemente su poder. Espero que esto lleve a un rápido incremento de estudios evolutivos de la muda y los ciclos del plumaje que a su vez provean la base para analizar otros aspectos del flexible fenotipo de las aves. Con un incremento tal, el estudio de la muda y el plumaje podría una vez más ocupar un lugar central en la ornitología.

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Interrelationships of factors of social development are more complex than Life History Theory predicts

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x19000177 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Boris Kotchoubey

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Social Development ◽

Life History Theory ◽

Strong Correlations ◽

Behavioral Features

Abstract Life History Theory (LHT) predicts a monotonous relationship between affluence and the rate of innovations and strong correlations within a cluster of behavioral features. Although both predictions can be true in specific cases, they are incorrect in general. Therefore, the author's explanations may be right, but they do not prove LHT and cannot be generalized to other apparently similar processes.

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