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1282267 
Journal Article 
Testosterone and melanin-based black plumage coloration: a comparative study 
Bokony, V; Garamszegi, LZ; Hirschenhauser, K; Liker, A 
2008 
Yes 
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
ISSN: 0340-5443
EISSN: 1432-0762 
Springer Science+Business Media 
62 
8 (Apr 2008) 
1229-1238 
WOS:000255851400002 
Despite the functional significance of melanin-based plumage coloration in social and sexual signaling, the mechanisms controlling its information content are poorly understood. The T-regulation hypothesis proposes that melanin ornaments signal competitive abilities via the effects of testosterone (T) mediating both melanization and sexual/aggressive behaviors. Using the phylogenetic comparative approach, we tested whether frontal black melanization is associated with elevated T around the time of breeding plumage development across all bird species with available T-data. We found a context-dependent relationship between melanization and T, varying with the type of ornamentation (patchy or full-black) and with the presumed taxonomic distribution of the hormonal control of plumage dichromatism. Within two taxa in which male plumage development is assumed androgen-dependent (Charadriiformes, Corvida), evolutionary increases in male melanization, and melanin dichromatism correlated with increases in T in most analyses but not within the basal lineage (ratites, Galloanseriformes) with androgen-independent male plumage. Among Passeroidea with presumably genetically or luteinizing-hormone-based male plumage, melanization and its dichromatism correlated with T only in species with 
androgens; hormonal control; melanin ornaments; sexual selection; status signals