Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Egg pigmentation probably has an early Archosaurian origin

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

From Nature

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Matters Arising to this article was published on 19 June 2019

The Original Article was published on 31 October 2018

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1: Maximum likelihood ancestral reconstruction tree showing probabilities of pigment deposition (green sections of nodes) in eggs of archosaurs.

Data availability

All data were taken from Fig. 1 of Wiemann et al.2 with the exception of the data point on Siamese crocodiles, which was based on data from Mikšík et al.10.

References

  1. Vinther, J. A guide to the field of palaeo colour. BioEssays 37, 643–656 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Wiemann, J., Yang, T.-R. & Norell, M. A. Dinosaur egg color had a single evolutionary origin. Nature 563, 555–558 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Fang, L.-S. & Bada, J. L. The blue-green blood plasma of marine fish. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B 97, 37–45 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Marinetti, G. V. & Bagnara, J. T. Yolk pigments of the Mexican leaf frog. Science 219, 985–987 (1983).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Baird, T., Solomon, S. E. & Tedstone, D. R. Localisation and characterization of egg shell porphyrin in several avian egg species. Br. Poult. Sci. 16, 201–208 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kennedy, G. Y. & Vevers, H. G. A survey of avian eggshell pigments. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B 55, 117–123 (1976).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Mikšík, I., Holan, V. & Deyl, Z. Quantification and variability of eggshell pigment content. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A 109, 769–772 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Wiemann, J. et al. Dinosaur origin of egg color: oviraptors laid blue-green eggs. PeerJ 5, e3706 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wiemann, J. et al. Fossilization transforms vertebrate hard tissue proteins into N-heterocyclic polymers. Nat. Comm. 9, 4741 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Mikšík, I., Paradis, S., Eckhardt, A. & Sedmera, D. Analysis of Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) eggshell proteome. Protein J. 37, 21–37 (2018).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from FWO grant G007117N and AFOSR grant FA9550-1-18-0447.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Department, Evolution and Optics of Nanostructures Group, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium

    Matthew D. Shawkey & Liliana D’Alba

Authors
  1. Matthew D. Shawkey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Liliana D’Alba
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.D.S. and L.D. conceived the study, L.D. analysed the data, M.D.S. wrote the manuscript, and both authors edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew D. Shawkey.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Figure 1 from Wiemann et al.2, with red lines indicating location of wavenumbers analysed using Raman imaging.

Both white and coloured eggs have peaks at 1,166 cm−1, and coloured eggs have valleys at 1,350 cm−1.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shawkey, M.D., D’Alba, L. Egg pigmentation probably has an early Archosaurian origin. Nature 570, E43–E45 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1282-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1282-4

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation