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Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on June 22, 2007
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2007 47(3):338-342; doi:10.1093/icb/icm051
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© 2007 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The origins of species-specific facial morphology: the proof is in the pigeon

J. A. Helms1 and S. A. Brugmann
Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

Correspondence: 1E-mail: jhelms{at}stanford.edu

One of the principal objectives of developmental research is to understand morphogenesis and in doing so, gain insights into the genetic basis of variation observed throughout the Animal Kingdom. In this review we take an approach, first popularized by Darwin, to understanding how diversity is created by using the domesticated pigeon as a model organism. Nearly 3000 years of selective breeding has produced an astonishing array of feather patterns, behaviors, skeletal shapes, and body sizes. Cumulatively, these features make the pigeon an exemplar of morphological variation. Our research interests center around exploiting the unique properties of domesticated pigeons to gain critical insights into the molecular and cellular basis for craniofacial variation.

From the symposium "Linking Genes and Morphology in Vertebrates" presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 3–7, 2007, at Phoenix, Arizona.


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