Отряд Ржанкообразные: Эволюция родительского поведения и разнообразие стратегий размножения.

Order of birds

Charadriiformes (/k//ə/'/r//æ//d//r//i//.//ᵻ//f//ɔr//m//iː//z/, from Charadrius, the type genus of family Charadriidae) is a diverse order of small to medium large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water and eat invertebrates or other small animals; however, some are pelagic (seabirds), others frequent deserts, and a few are found in dense forest. Members of this group can also collectively be referred to as shorebirds.

Shorebirds pursue a larger diversity of parental care strategies than do most other avian orders. They therefore present an attractive set of examples to support the understanding of the evolution of parental care in avians generally. The ancestral avian most likely had a female parental care system. The shorebird ancestor specifically evolved from a bi parental care system, yet the species within the clade Scolopacidae evolved from a male parental care system. These transitions might have occurred for several reasons. Brooding density is correlated with male parental care. Male care systems in birds are shown to have a very low breeding density while female care systems in birds have a high breeding density. (Owens 2005). Certain rates of male and female mortality, male and female egg maturation rate, and egg death rate have been associated with particular systems as well. It has also been shown that sex role reversal is motivated by the male biased adult sex ratio. The reason for such diversity in shorebirds, compared to other birds, has yet to be understood.