First evidence of sex differences in the duration
of avian embryonic period: consequences for
sibling competition in sexually dimorphic birds
Guillermo Blanco,a
Jesu´s Martı´nez-Padilla,a
Jose´ A.
Da´vila,a
David Serrano,b
and Javier Vin˜uelaa
a
Instituto...
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First evidence of sex differences in the duration
of avian embryonic period: consequences for
sibling competition in sexually dimorphic birds
Guillermo Blanco,a
Jesu´s Martı´nez-Padilla,a
Jose´ A.
Da´vila,a
David Serrano,b
and Javier Vin˜uelaa
a
Instituto de Investigacio´n en Recursos Cinege´ticos (C.
S.
I.
C.
-U.
C.
L.
M.
), Ronda de Toledo s/n,
13005 Ciudad Real, Spain, and b
Department of Applied Biology, Estacio´n Biolo´gica
de Don˜ana (C.
S.
I.
C.
).
Avda.
Maria Luisa s/n, 41013 Sevilla, Spain
Parental favoritism in birds would be enhanced if parents can control any egg feature influencing the ontogeny of the embryo
during incubation.
Egg size and composition may influence the duration of incubation and hatching periods, and eggs bearing
embryos of different sex may differ in size and composition.
Therefore, the sex of the embryo could also influence its ontogeny
before hatching.
We tested this prediction by investigating the duration of the embryonic period of different-sex em
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