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Science 21 July 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5478, pp. 369 - 371
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5478.369
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News of the Week

ECOLOGY:
Food Fight Drives Evolution

Kathryn Brown

On page 441 of this issue, evolutionary biologists showcase the purple-throated carib hummingbird as a rare example of food supply--in this case, flower shape--spurring the evolution of a sexual dimorphism, or a feature that differs between males and females. On St. Lucia, an island in the West Indies, female caribs sport bills a third longer and twice as curved as those of their male counterparts--one of the most extreme bill differences between the sexes in any hummingbird species. In the paper, the researchers link these "whoppingly dimorphic bills" to the specific flowers the male and female caribs frequent.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)