Evolutionary trends in the behaviour and morphology of the Anatidae

Article Sidebar

PDF

Main Article Content

Paul A Johnsgard

Abstract

The major evolutionary trends most clearly evident in the Anatidae are as follows: 1) A trend from monomorphism to dimorphism in plumage, voice (including tracheal structure) and displays, in association with a trend from long pair bonds to temporary pair bonds. 2) A trend from generalized nesting and feeding adaptations to highly specialized ones, with associated specializations in diving adaptations and bill structure. 3) A trend from a single yearly body molt to two molts of the body plumage yearly, usually with an associated separation of nuptial and postnuptial ('eclipse') plumages in males. 4) A trend towards the development of elaborate, often metallic-coloured, male plumage patterns and wing specula, associated with displays that exhibit these patterns.

Article Details

How to Cite
Johnsgard, P. A. (1961). Evolutionary trends in the behaviour and morphology of the Anatidae. Wildfowl, 19. Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/Wildfowl/article/view/155797
Issue
The Wildfowl Trust Thirteenth Annual Report
Section
Artikler

Articles in Wildfowl volumes 1-74 and in Wildfowl Special Issues 1-7  are not licensed under Creative Commons. In these volumes, all rights are reserved to the authors of the articles respectively.

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (which published the journal from 1948–2020 inclusive) retains a royalty-free license in perpetuity to access and use pre-2021 issues for the purposes of research, which may involve sharing with research partners from time to time.

The copyright for this paper belongs to the Author(s). Papers published in Wildfowl 75 (in 2025) and subsequent issues are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

In the articles published in these volumes, all rights are reserved to the authors of the articles respectively. This implies that readers can download, read, and link to the articles, but they cannot republish the articles. Authors can upload their articles into an institutional repository.