SynthesisBiology letters2020
Structural colours reflect individual quality: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Biology letters, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Synthesis of Nature's Extravaganza: An Augmented Meta-Meta-Analysis on (Putative) Sexual Signals.Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Ornaments are equally informative in male and female birds.Nature communications · 2022Pooled it
- The exploitation of sexual signals by predators: a meta-analysis.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Colourful traits in female birds relate to individual condition, reproductive performance and male-mate preferences: a meta-analytic approach.Biology letters · 2021Pooled it
- Meta-analytic evidence for quantitative honesty in aposematic signals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Carotenoid-based ornaments predict survival in male but not female birds: A meta-analysis.iScience · 2026Article
- Male conspicuous coloration covaries with aggression but not with exploration in the short-lived annual fish Nothobranchius guentheri.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Replicated urban mosaics reveal trait- and species-specific shifts in carotenoid and structural plumage colouration of two passerines.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Reliability of meta-analyses in ecology and evolution: (mostly) good news from a case study on sexual signals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Claw coloration in the fiddler crabCurrent zoology · 2025Article
- Natural and sexual selection and functional roles influence colouration but not the amount of variation in butterfly wing colour patterns.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Lizard polymorphic throat colors are distinguishable by conspecifics and predators across variable light environments.PloS one · 2025Article
- Decoding ladybird's colours: Structural mechanisms of colour production and pigment modulation.PloS one · 2025Article
- Single-step fabrication of liquid gallium nanoparticles via capillary interaction for dynamic structural colours.Nature nanotechnology · 2024Article
- A reformulation of Fisher's runaway identifies the heritability of mate choices as a key parameter and highlights limitations of the hypothesis.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The carotenoid redshift: Physical basis and implications for visual signaling.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Ornaments indicate parasite load only if they are dynamic or parasites are contagious.Evolution letters · 2023Article
- Haemosporidian parasites and incubation period influence plumage coloration in tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae).Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Heightened condition dependent expression of structural coloration in the faces, but not wings, of male and female flies.Current zoology · 2022Article
- Sexual dichromatism, size dimorphism, and microscale anatomy of white wing stripe in blue tits.Current zoology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Colourful ornaments often communicate salient information to mates, and theory predicts covariance between signal expression and individual quality. This has borne out among pigment-based signals, but the potential for 'honesty' in structural coloration is unresolved. Here, I synthesized the available evidence to test this prediction via meta-analysis and found that, overall, the expression of structurally coloured sexual signals is positively associated with individual quality. The effects varied by the measure of quality, however, with body condition and immune function reliably encoded across taxa, but not age nor parasite resistance. The relationship was apparent for both the colour and brightness of signals and was slightly stronger for iridescent ornaments. These results suggest diverse pathways to the encoding and exchange of information among structural colours while highlighting outstanding questions as to the development, visual ecology and evolution of this striking adornment.
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Registered trials
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