TY - JOUR

T1 - The evolution of nest site use and nest architecture in birds and their non-avian ancestors

AU - Mainwaring, M.C.

AU - Medina, I.

AU - Tobalske, B.W.

AU - Hartley, I.R.

AU - Varricchio, D.J.

AU - Hauber, M.E.

PY - 2023/8/28

Y1 - 2023/8/28

N2 - The evolution of nest site use and nest architecture in the non-avian ancestors of birds remains poorly understood because nest structures do not preserve well as fossils. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that the earliest dinosaurs probably buried eggs below ground and covered them with soil so that heat from the substrate fuelled embryo development, while some later dinosaurs laid partially exposed clutches where adults incubated them and protected them from predators and parasites. The nests of euornithine birds—the precursors to modern birds—were probably partially open and the neornithine birds—or modern birds—were probably the first to build fully exposed nests. The shift towards smaller, open cup nests has been accompanied by shifts in reproductive traits, with female birds having one functioning ovary in contrast to the two ovaries of crocodilians and many non-avian dinosaurs. The evolutionary trend among extant birds and their ancestors has been toward the evolution of greater cognitive abilities to construct in a wider diversity of sites and providing more care for significantly fewer, increasingly altricial, offspring. The highly derived passerines reflect this pattern with many species building small, architecturally complex nests in open sites and investing significant care into altricial young

AB - The evolution of nest site use and nest architecture in the non-avian ancestors of birds remains poorly understood because nest structures do not preserve well as fossils. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that the earliest dinosaurs probably buried eggs below ground and covered them with soil so that heat from the substrate fuelled embryo development, while some later dinosaurs laid partially exposed clutches where adults incubated them and protected them from predators and parasites. The nests of euornithine birds—the precursors to modern birds—were probably partially open and the neornithine birds—or modern birds—were probably the first to build fully exposed nests. The shift towards smaller, open cup nests has been accompanied by shifts in reproductive traits, with female birds having one functioning ovary in contrast to the two ovaries of crocodilians and many non-avian dinosaurs. The evolutionary trend among extant birds and their ancestors has been toward the evolution of greater cognitive abilities to construct in a wider diversity of sites and providing more care for significantly fewer, increasingly altricial, offspring. The highly derived passerines reflect this pattern with many species building small, architecturally complex nests in open sites and investing significant care into altricial young

U2 - 10.1098/rstb.2022.0143

DO - 10.1098/rstb.2022.0143

M3 - Article

VL - 378

JO - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

JF - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

SN - 0962-8436

IS - 1884

M1 - 20220143

ER -