Why not look like an adult? A global comparative analysis of delayed plumage maturation in Passerine birds

Ríos Orjuela, Juan Camilo

Publicación:
Why not look like an adult? A global comparative analysis of delayed plumage maturation in Passerine birds

authorProfile.id.code	202213414
dc.contributor.advisor	Cadena Ordónez, Carlos Daniel
dc.contributor.author	Ríos Orjuela, Juan Camilo
dc.contributor.jury	Molina Escobar, Jorge Alberto
dc.date.accessioned	2026-01-29T13:55:25Z
dc.date.available	2026-01-29T13:55:25Z
dc.date.issued	2026-01-28
dc.description.abstract	Delayed plumage maturation (DPM), the retention of subadult plumage beyond the first potential breeding season, is widespread among birds, yet its evolutionary drivers remain poorly understood. We conducted a global comparative analysis across 1,175 passerine species to test whether ecological seasonality and social or sexual signaling predict interspecific variation in DPM. Using phylogenetically informed models and ancestral state reconstructions, we found that DPM has evolved repeatedly but has been more frequently lost than gained, indicating a highly labile evolutionary history. The degree of DPM increased significantly with sexual dichromatism, supporting the hypothesis that delayed acquisition of adult-like plumage functions as a signaling delay that mitigates social aggression and competitive costs during early life stages. Among environmental predictors, DPM was positively associated with latitude and climatic axes reflecting intense warm-season conditions, suggesting that ecological seasonality and thermal stress may favor delayed maturation by constraining breeding windows or amplifying the costs of ornament production. Conversely, vegetation productivity (NDVI) and proxies of social bonding or territoriality showed no detectable effects, possibly due to limited behavioral resolution. Together, these findings indicate that DPM likely arises and is maintained through the joint influence of environmental constraints and social signaling pressures, functioning as a flexible life-history strategy that balances survival and reproductive trade-offs under variable ecological regimes. Our results position DPM as an adaptive, dynamically regulated trait at the interface of sexual selection, development, and environmental seasonality, highlighting the need for integrative behavioral, hormonal, and genomic studies to unravel its underlying mechanisms.	eng
dc.description.degreelevel	Maestría
dc.format.extent	39 páginas
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.instname	instname:Universidad de los Andes	spa
dc.identifier.reponame	reponame:Repositorio Institucional Séneca	spa
dc.identifier.repourl	repourl:https://repositorio.uniandes.edu.co/	spa
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1992/78044
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	Universidad de los Andes	spa
dc.publisher.department	Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas
dc.publisher.faculty	Facultad de Ciencias
dc.publisher.program	Maestría en Ciencias Biológicas
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dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.accessrights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	spa
dc.rights.coar	http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2	spa
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subject.keyword	Climatic seasonality	eng
dc.subject.keyword	Developmental timing	eng
dc.subject.keyword	Life-history trade-offs	eng
dc.subject.keyword	Sexual selection	eng
dc.subject.keyword	Signal evolution	eng
dc.subject.keyword	Social signaling	eng
dc.subject.themes	Biología
dc.title	Why not look like an adult? A global comparative analysis of delayed plumage maturation in Passerine birds	eng
dc.type	Trabajo de grado - Maestría	spa
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