Search results for "Ornaments"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
Dynamics of PHA-induced immune response and plasma carotenoids in birds: should we have a closer look?
2009
SUMMARY Allocation trade-offs of limited resources are thought to ensure the honesty of sexual signals and are often studied using controlled immune challenges. One such trade-off between immunity and ornaments is that involving carotenoids. Phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced immune response is a widely used immune challenge, yet more details on the underlying physiological mechanisms and potential costs are needed. We investigated the temporal dynamics of PHA-induced immune response and associated changes in blood carotenoids, body mass and a carotenoid-based coloured signal. We found variation in individual response patterns to PHA after peak swelling was reached, with birds showing either …
Sexually extravagant males age more rapidly
2011
Evolutionary theories of ageing posit that increased reproductive investment occurs at the expense of physiological declines in later life. Males typically invest heavily in costly sexual ornaments and behaviour, but evidence that the expression of these traits can cause senescence is lacking. Long-lived houbara bustards (Chlamydotis undulata) engage in extravagant sexual displays to attract mates and here we show that males investing most in these displays experience a rapid senescent deterioration of spermatogenic function at a younger age. This effect is sufficiently large that the expected links between male showiness and fertility reverse in later life, despite showy males continuing t…
Age, condition and dominance-related sexual ornament size before and during the breeding season in the black grouse Lyrurus tetrix
2018
Male ornaments function as honest cues of male quality in many species and are subject to intra- and intersexual selection. These ornaments are generally studied during peak expression, however their size outside the breeding season may determine ultimate ornament size and costliness, and as such reproductive success. We investigated whether male black grouse Lyrurus tetrix eye comb size was related to age, condition and measures of male dominance before and during the breeding season. Total combined eye comb size began to increase ~70 d before the start of the breeding season. Adult males (aged ≥ 2 yr old) had consistently larger eye combs than younger males (1 yr old) both before and duri…
'Palaeoshellomics' reveals the use of freshwater mother-of-pearl in prehistory
2019
The extensive use of mollusc shell as a versatile raw material is testament to its importance in prehistoric times. The consistent choice of certain species for different purposes, including the making of ornaments, is a direct representation of how humans viewed and exploited their environment. The necessary taxonomic information, however, is often impossible to obtain from objects that are small, heavily worked or degraded. Here we propose a novel biogeochemical approach to track the biological origin of prehistoric mollusc shell. We conducted an in-depth study of archaeological ornaments using microstructural, geochemical and biomolecular analyses, including ‘palaeoshellomics’, the first…
Composantes culturelles et Premières productions céramiques du Bronze ancien dans le sud-est de la France
2012
The collective research project "Cultural components of the first pottery productions of the Early Bronze Age in Southeast France" derives from renewal of documentation on the Early Bronze Age in the southeast Rhodanian region and new approaches to the Bell Beaker period, particularly in the southern part of Southeast France. In 1998, the Riva del Garda conference constituted a high point in Bell Beaker research at a European scale, of which the consequences and questions motivated the collective project for an overview of the transition from the end of the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in a large southeastern quarter of France. In these regions, issues relating to the future of Bell Be…
La nécropole Néolithique moyen d’Obernai ‘Neuen Brunnen’ (Bas-Rhin) : rites funéraires de la première moitié du 5e millénaire dans le sud de la plain…
2020
The Obernai ’Neuen Brunnen’ necropolis in Lower Alsace yielded 29 tombs attributed to the Middle Neolithic. It was probably founded during the Early Grossgartach, at the end of the 48th century BC, and abandoned during the Roessen, perhaps during the Early Roessen, and in any case before the middle of the 46th century BC. The most original feature of this mortuary assemblage is that most of the tombs belong to the Planig-Friedberg period (the last stylistic phase of the Grossgartach) and the Roessen. The mortuary practices of these periods are still poorly known in the region. The necropolis is composed of three spatial groups, the most ancient of which contains all the Grossgartach tombs a…
Gli argenti delle confraternite di Bisacquino
2011
Le confraternite di Bisacquino nel XVIII secolo dotarono le chiese o cappelle in cui aveva sede il loro sodalizio di pregevoli suppellettili ed arredi sacri in argento, eseguiti da abili artisti palermitani, di cui si propongono i più significativi esempi The confraternities of Bisacquino in the eighteenth century equipped the churches or chapels where their association was based with valuable silver furnishings and sacred ornaments, made by skilled artists from Palermo, of which the most significant examples are proposed here.
The So-called “Mithraic Cave” of Angera
2018
Summary The existence of a mithraeum at Angera (VA, Italy) was assumed for the first time in the 19th century, after the discovery of two Mithraic inscriptions re-used as ornaments of a private garden in the middle of the small town. The location of the alleged mithraeum is still uncertain: the inscriptions have been found out of context, and the place of worship has never been localized. The “Antro mitraico” (Mithraic Cave), also known as “Tana del Lupo”, is a natural cave situated at the base of the East wall of the cliff on which the Rocca Borromeo (the Castle of Angera) stands. At the cave the most visible archaeological evidences are tens of breaches cut into the outside rocky wall, wh…
Viability costs of condition-dependent sexual male display in a drumming wolf spider
1996
According to the conditional handicap models females use male ornaments as honest signals of male viability. The assumptions for honest signalling are that the traits are costly and that they reflect male phenotypic condition, and hence optimal trait size is largest in the most viable males. However, experimental evidence for the costs of signalling are scarce. In this study we experimentally tested whether acoustic signalling, drumming, in a wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata is a condition dependent, costly trait, and thus offers an honest signal of quality to females. Males of this species court females by drumming dry leaves with their abdomen. Females prefer to mate with males of hi…
LA OCUPACIÓN SOLUTRENSE DEL ABRIGO DE LA BOJA (MULA, MURCIA, ESPAÑA)
2013
El relleno pleistoceno del Abrigo de la Boja (ADB) empieza con un nivel adscrito al Magdaleniense superior, seguido de un potente paquete con ocupación difusa bajo el cual se desarrolla una secuencia depositada durante el último máximo glacial caracterizada por una serie de estructuras de combustión, de tipo hogar plano/amorfo (open hearth), existiendo también hogares de cubeta. Destaca un hogar enlosado, completo y muy bien conservado, excavado en 2012 y adscrito provisionalmente al Solutreogravetiense. Los niveles solutrenses subyacentes son ricos en elementos de adorno, entre los cuales conchas perforadas de Littorina obtusata y Smaragdia viridis; su industria lítica incluye raspadores, …