Pattern recognition algorithm reveals how birds evolve individual egg pattern signatures

Pattern-based identity signatures are commonplace in the animal kingdom, but how they are recognized is poorly understood. Here we develop a computer vision tool for analysing visual patterns, N ATURE P ATTERN M ATCH , which breaks new ground by mimicking visual and cognitive processes known to be i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 4117
Main Authors: Stoddard, Mary Caswell, Kilner, Rebecca M., Town, Christopher
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18.06.2014
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
631/158/2451
631/601/18
Algorithms
Animals
Biological Evolution
Birds
Birds - physiology
Egg Shell - physiology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Models, Biological
multidisciplinary
Pattern recognition
Pattern Recognition, Automated - methods
Pigmentation - physiology
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Regression Analysis
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
ISSN:2041-1723, 2041-1723
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Pattern-based identity signatures are commonplace in the animal kingdom, but how they are recognized is poorly understood. Here we develop a computer vision tool for analysing visual patterns, N ATURE P ATTERN M ATCH , which breaks new ground by mimicking visual and cognitive processes known to be involved in recognition tasks. We apply this tool to a long-standing question about the evolution of recognizable signatures. The common cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ) is a notorious cheat that sneaks its mimetic eggs into nests of other species. Can host birds fight back against cuckoo forgery by evolving highly recognizable signatures? Using N ATURE P ATTERN M ATCH , we show that hosts subjected to the best cuckoo mimicry have evolved the most recognizable egg pattern signatures. Theory predicts that effective pattern signatures should be simultaneously replicable, distinctive and complex. However, our results reveal that recognizable signatures need not incorporate all three of these features. Moreover, different hosts have evolved effective signatures in diverse ways. It is unclear how birds differentiate their own eggs from cuckoo’s eggs that parasitize their nests. Here, the authors develop a computer vision tool that simulates how brains process pattern information and show that cuckoos’ hosts have evolved unique egg patterns to distinguish their own eggs from a cuckoo’s.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms5117