Hunt, Eloise SE;
Felice, Ryan N;
Tobias, Joseph A;
Goswami, Anjali;
(2023)
Ecological and life-history drivers of avian skull evolution.
Evolution
, 77
(7)
pp. 1720-1729.
10.1093/evolut/qpad079.
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Abstract
One of the most famous examples of adaptive radiation is that of the Galápagos finches, where skull morphology, particularly the beak, varies with feeding ecology. Yet increasingly studies are questioning the strength of this correlation between feeding ecology and morphology in relation to the entire neornithine radiation, suggesting that other factors also significantly affect skull evolution. Here, we broaden this debate to assess the influence of a range of ecological and life history factors, specifically habitat density, migration, and developmental mode, in shaping avian skull evolution. Using 3D geometric morphometric data to robustly quantify skull shape for 354 extant species spanning avian diversity, we fitted flexible phylogenetic regressions and estimated evolutionary rates for each of these factors across the full dataset. The results support a highly significant relationship between skull shape and both habitat density and migration, but not developmental mode. We further found heterogenous rates of evolution between different character states within habitat density, migration, and developmental mode, with rapid skull evolution in species which occupy dense habitats, are migratory, or are precocial. These patterns demonstrate that diverse factors impact the tempo and mode of avian phenotypic evolution, and that skull evolution in birds is not simply a reflection of feeding ecology.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ecological and life-history drivers of avian skull evolution |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/evolut/qpad079 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad079 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics & Heredity, Environmental Sciences & Ecology, macroevolution, morphological evolution, life-history evolution, R PACKAGE, MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION, DIFFERENTIAL PREDATION, MIGRATORY BEHAVIOR, ADAPTIVE RADIATION, SHAPE EVOLUTION, BIRD MIGRATION, LIGHT ENOUGH, BRAIN SIZE, DIVERSIFICATION |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10172947 |
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