Talk:Aquitaivas/@comment-4212769-20160325140503

Interestingly, the mention of youngs evolving the shining mane early lets assume that Aquitaivas is a relatively young species. Like adaptations in size etc. regulation is another parameter that gets influenced by natural selection.

This can be noticed by different adaptations of animals, among them the human species itself, as humans need a excessively longer time to mature than other animals of the same size. Probably a adaptation to the lack of natural predators inside villages and cities and improvement of safety which allowed them to grow slower, with that save energy for other things like raising the capacity and size of the brain.

This follows a simple logic. If you have less perils in the childhood, slow but more specified and steady growing in certain areas (brain) while reaching the same dimensions as faster growing individuals improves the survival rate in society and outside of it as the maximal brain capacity is increased altogether and also raises the life span altogether. The regulation slows down mostly hormones in the genitals (like the testicals that don't produce testosteron before puberty as the production gets regulated) or lets them die down completely until a change in hormones removes this regulation and lets the production uninhibitedly commence. As no energy is used for the production of testosteron until then, the energy can be used otherwise which increases the development of other areas.

Back to Aquitaivas, it's the actual opposite situation as the one of the human as the predators for young individuals are very present. And the development of the shiny mane is a rather disadvantageous characteristic for the young chicks. That's where the natural selection grips. The individuals that have a longer full regulation of the evolution of their manes have a better chance of surviving as they get spotted less often by predators. This means the chicks that evolve the mane later have a higher chance to survive also lifting the burden of the parents to protect them a bit what also prevents wounded or killed parents which decreases the mortality of the small birds even more.

So this makes the conclusion plausible that Aquitaivas is a relatively recently evolved species as the evolution of this regulation is still at the very beginning.

On another note, the mane is an important instrument for predation so when youngs start to hunt their own prey the full evolution of the mane is a great advantage what presses the regulation back. This will bring a balance to the age the mane gets developed presumely shortly before they leave the nest and start to hunt.