Evolution
Number of bird families with super black plumage
what is 15?
Number different super black barbule morphologies
What is 5?
Super black patches are usually located next to these to make them appear even brighter.
What are colored patches?
Super black plumages evolved for this type of selection
What is sexual selection?
Barbule morphology that is the most efficient at scattering light, leading to the darkest appearance
What is curved array morphology?
These chemical pigments give feathers color like black and brown.
What is melanin?
A statistical model that tests for correlations between feather microstructure and percent reflectance, while controlling for ancestry.
What is Phylogenetic Generalized Least Square (PGLS)?
Names of the different super black barbule morphologies
What is curved array, dihedral straps, dense straps, sparse straps, and brushy barbs?
This tool measures how much light the feather reflects at different wavelengths.
What is a spectrophotometer?