I joined the Centre for Ornithology as a member of Dr Phill Cassey’s quantitative ecology group to take part in the quest to understand the evolution and fascinating diversity of avian eggshell structures and appearance. Specifically, I am interested in the light transmission through the eggshell and as such my work focuses on shell thickness, porosity and the pigmentation of eggshells. Most of my data collection was based at the Natural History Museum’s egg collection in Tring, where, with the support of curator Douglas Russell, I have sampled a small fraction of the collection’s more than 1 Million eggs.

To date a phylogenetically representative sample of more than 500 species (> 5000 eggs) has been digitally photographed (see picture) and the analysis of this unprecedented data set is well under way. In addition we

The current work on egg shells ties in nicely with my PhD project (with Dr Rob Magrath, The Australian National University) on one of the most puzzling systems of avian parental care in the pheasant coucal. This field study has furnished me with the basics on parental incubation behaviour, of course another important factor in determining the light environment inside the egg. More recently, I completed a postdoc with Dr Naomi Langmore (ANU) investigating the evolution of non-mimetic eggs in the little bronze-cuckoo.  (Photo: Golo and his photo-egg ®. How did he ever become inspired to study the light environment inside an egg?)

Contact Golo Maurer  Golo Maurer's webpage

 For a list of all Golo Maurer's publications click here

Publications in peer-reviewed journals

14. G Maurer, DGD Russell, and P Cassey, in press. Interpreting lists and equations of egg dimensions in Schönwetter’s ‘Handbuch der Oologie’. The Auk.

http://caliber.ucpress.net/toc/auk/0/ja

13. DGD Russell, J White, G Maurer, P Cassey, in press. Data-poor Egg Collections: tapping an important research resource. Journal of Afrotropical Zoology.

12. G Maurer, DGD Russell, F Woog and P Cassey, in press. Museum specimens of eggs from the extinct Egyptian population of White-tailed Eagles, Haliaeetus albicilla. Bulletin of the British Ornithologist’s Club

11. G Maurer, N Beck, MC Double 2010. A ‘feather-trap’ for collecting DNA samples from birds. Molecular Ecology Resources: 129-34.

10. NE Langmore, M Stevens, G Maurer, RM Kilner. 2009 Are dark cuckoo eggs cryptic in host nests? Animal behaviour: 461-68.

9. G Maurer, S Blomberg; 2009. Does testis size in cuckoos vary with paternal care? The Auk 126 (1): 24-30.

8. M Kinnear, LMA Smith, G Maurer, P Backwell, CC Linde; 2009. Microsatellite loci for paternity analysis in the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi. Journal of Crustacean Biology 29(2):273-74.

7. G Maurer, C Smith, M Süsser, RD Magrath; 2008. Sex and individual call differences in a nesting cuckoo with reversed size dimorphism. Australian J. of Zoology 56(3) 143–9

6. NE Langmore, G Maurer, GJ Adcock, & RM Kilner; 2008. Socially acquired host-specific mimicry and evolution of host races in Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoo. Evolution 62(7):1689-99

5. G Maurer; 2008. Who cares? Males provide most parental care in a monogamous nesting cuckoo. Ethology, 114:6, 540-7.

4. G Maurer; 2007. Love is in the air: arboreal copulations of the pheasant coucal, Centropus phasianinus. Northern Territory Naturalist, 19, 48-50.

3. G Maurer, ML Hale, MH Verduijn, K Wolff; 2005. Polymorphic microsatellite loci in pheasant coucal (Centropus phasianinus). Molecular Ecology Notes, 5 (2), 337-9.

2. NE Langmore, RM Kilner, SHM Butchart, G Maurer, NB Davies, A Cockburn, N Macgregor, A Peters, MJL Magrath and D Dowling; 2005. The evolution of egg rejection by cuckoo hosts in Australia and Europe. Behavioral Ecology, 16, 686-92.

1. G Maurer, RD Magrath, ML Leonard, AG Horn & C Donelly; 2003. Begging to differ: scrubwren nestlings beg to alarm calls and vocalise when parents are absent. Animal Behaviour, 65 (5) 1045-55.