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Why do organisms age? This is one of the big, unsolved questions in biology, because it is unclear how a process that decreases fitness can persist evolutionarily, and why species do not evolve to live longer. Many evolutionary theories have been suggested to explain, but it is likely that multiple factors contribute to the phenomenon. One potentially very important factor has been largely ignored ...

"Although birds are the best studied vertebrate group, most studied species are endemic to the temperate zones while about half of all bird species life in the tropics. Further, among the tropical species many belong to the so-called sub-oscine passerines while the temperate zones are dominated by their sister group, the oscines or songbirds. The knowledge of the biodiversity of reproduction mecha ...