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ANIMAL COMMUNICATION

Good vibrations in the nest

Exposing wild-caught eggs to audio playbacks in the lab reveals that avian embryos can communicate predation risk to their siblings before hatching. This prenatal communication, which possibly occurs through vibrational cues, coordinates the developmental trajectories of the clutch.

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Fig. 1: Adult alarm calls alter pre- and postnatal responses in gulls, and this information is transmitted to unexposed clutch mates.

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Correspondence to Mylene M. Mariette.

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Mariette, M.M., Buchanan, K.L. Good vibrations in the nest. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1144–1145 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0955-6

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