Summary
Eggs of the Brush-turkey, Alectura lathami, are deposited inside mounds of earth and leaves where organic decomposition furnishes the necessary heat for development. In this study the 211-g eggs were exposed to a temperature of 37.3°C, a water vapor pressure of 48 torr and a partial O2 and CO2 pressure of 100 and 62 torr, respectively. These eggs had a water vapor conductance of 46 mg/day·torr which is 2.6 times greater than that predicted for typical avian eggs of similar size and incubation period (63 days). The larger than normal gas conductance is presumably an adaptation to the unusual gaseous nest environment and would greatly reduce the typical O2 and CO2 differences that normally develop across the egg shell during embryonic development.
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Seymour, R.S., Rahn, H. (1978). Gas Conductance in the Eggshell of the Mound-Building Brush Turkey. In: Piiper, J. (eds) Respiratory Function in Birds, Adult and Embryonic. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66894-4_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66894-4_34
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