A new specimen of the Early Eocene Masillacolius brevidactylus and its implications for the evolution of feeding specializations in mousebirds (Coliiformes)

Mayr, Gérald

doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2015.05.007

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…While our ancestral state reconstruction recovers granivory and frugivory as the likely ancestral states of extant parrots and mousebirds respectively (Supplementary Table 3 ), there is evidence that extinct, stem branches of both of these clades had a more predatory diet. Most stem group Coliiformes, as well as an extinct sister clade (Sandcoleidae) had morphological traits, such as shortened proximal phalanges in the second and fourth toe 36 , that suggest they were adapted to capture and manipulate large objects, including prey. Also, stem Coliiformes had proportionally longer beaks than extant Colliformes, as well as other beak adaptations, that suggest a less strictly frugivorous diet 36 , 37 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online repositories of photographs and videos provide insights into the evolution of skilled hindlimb movements in birds

et al. 2023

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The ability to manipulate objects with limbs has evolved repeatedly among land tetrapods. Several selective forces have been proposed to explain the emergence of forelimb manipulation, however, work has been largely restricted to mammals, which prevents the testing of evolutionary hypotheses in a comprehensive evolutionary framework. In birds, forelimbs have gained the exclusive function of flight, with grasping transferred predominantly to the beak. In some birds, the feet are also used in manipulative tasks and appear to share some features with manual grasping and prehension in mammals, but this has not been systematically investigated. Here we use large online repositories of photographs and videos to quantify foot manipulative skills across a large sample of bird species (>1000 species). Our results show that a complex interaction between niche, diet and phylogeny drive the evolution of manipulative skills with the feet in birds. Furthermore, we provide strong support for the proposition that an arboreal niche is a key element in the evolution of manipulation in land vertebrates. Our systematic comparison of foot use in birds provides a solid base for understanding morphological and neural adaptations for foot use in birds, and for studying the convergent evolution of manipulative skills in birds and mammals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online repositories of photographs and videos provide insights into the evolution of skilled hindlimb movements in birds

et al. 2023

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“…While our ancestral state reconstruction recovers granivory and frugivory as the likely ancestral states of extant parrots and mousebirds respectively (table S2), there is evidence that extinct, stem branches of both of these clades had a more predatory diet. Most stem group Coliiformes, as well as an extinct sister clade (Sandcoleidae) had morphological traits, such as shortened proximal phalanges in the second and fourth toe 33 , that suggest they were adapted to capture and manipulate large objects, including prey. Also, stem Coliiformes had proportionally longer beaks than extant Colliformes, as well as other beak adaptations, that suggest a less strictly frugivorous diet 33,34 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most stem group Coliiformes, as well as an extinct sister clade (Sandcoleidae) had morphological traits, such as shortened proximal phalanges in the second and fourth toe 33 , that suggest they were adapted to capture and manipulate large objects, including prey. Also, stem Coliiformes had proportionally longer beaks than extant Colliformes, as well as other beak adaptations, that suggest a less strictly frugivorous diet 33,34 . Similarly, fossil evidence suggest that two of the stem pan-Psittaciformes clades had many raptor-like adaptations in the beak and foot [35][36][37] .…”

Section: Evolution Of Skilled Manipulation In Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of skilled hindlimb movements in birds: A citizen science approach

Gutiérrez-Ibáñez

Amaral-Peçanha

Iwaniuk

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The ability to manipulate objects with limbs has evolved repeatedly among land tetrapods. Several selective forces have been proposed to explain the emergence of forelimb manipulation, however, work has been largely restricted to mammals, which prevents the testing of evolutionary hypotheses in a comprehensive evolutionary framework. In birds, forelimbs have gained the exclusive function of flight, with grasping transferred predominantly to the beak. In some birds, the feet are also used in manipulative tasks and appear to share some features with manual grasping and prehension in mammals, but this has not been systematically investigated. Here we use large online repositories of photographs and videos to quantify foot manipulative skills across a large sample of bird species (>1000 species). Our results show that a complex interaction between niche, diet and phylogeny drive the evolution of manipulative skill with the feet in birds. Furthermore, we provide strong support for the proposition that an arboreal niche is a key element in the evolution of manipulation in land vertebrates. Our systematic comparison of foot use in birds provides a solid base for understanding morphological and neural adaptations for foot use in birds, and for studying the convergent evolution of manipulative skills in birds and mammals.

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“…( ii ) Previous inference from beak morphology or gastroliths suggesting frugivory, including Turnicidae (buttonquails), Gallinuloididae and Quercymegapodiidae (Galliformes), and Psittacopedidae (stem parrots) (Mayr, 2009). ( iii ) Direct evidence of seeds or fruits in gut contents, including Messelornis (Messelornithidae; stem rails and cranes), Primobucco and Eocoracias (Primobucconidae and Eocoracidae; stem rollers), Eoglaucidium pallas (Sandcoleidae; stem mousebirds), Selmes absurdipes and Masillacolius brevidactylus (Coliiformes; crown mousebirds), Primozygodactylus major (Zygodactylidae; stem passerines) (Mayr & Peters, 1998; Mayr, 1998, 2015, 2018; Peters, 1999; Mayr & Mourer‐Chauviré, 2000; Morlo, 2004). Although the gut contents of these species are preserved with seeds, the general consensus is that they probably engaged in opportunistic rather than high‐frequency frugivory (Mayr, 2009).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Modern bird groups with strictly frugivorous species include curassows and guans (Crassidae), cassowaries (Casuariidae), mousebirds (Coliidae), touracos (Musophagidae), trogons (Trogonidae), oilbirds (Steatornithidae), parrots (Psittacidae), toucans (Ramphastidae), hornbills (Bucerotidae), (Mayr & Peters, 1998;Mayr, 1998Mayr, , 2015Mayr, , 2018Peters, 1999;Mayr & Mourer-Chauviré, 2000;Morlo, 2004). Although the gut contents of these species are preserved with seeds, the general consensus is that they probably engaged in opportunistic rather than high-frequency frugivory (Mayr, 2009).…”

Section: (9) Proportion Of Frugivorous Taxa In Vertebrate Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of variation in fleshy diaspore size and abundance from Late Triassic–Oligocene

Naware,

Benson

2023

Biological Reviews

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Vertebrate‐mediated seed dispersal is a common attribute of many living plants, and variation in the size and abundance of fleshy diaspores is influenced by regional climate and by the nature of vertebrate seed dispersers among present‐day floras. However, potential drivers of large‐scale variation in the abundance and size distributions of fleshy diaspores through geological time, and the importance of geographic variation, are incompletely known. This knowledge gap is important because fleshy diaspores are a key mechanism of energy transfer from photosynthesis to animals and may in part explain the diversification of major groups within birds and mammals. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain variation in the abundance and size distribution of fleshy diaspores through time, including plant–frugivore co‐evolution, angiosperm diversification, and changes in vegetational structure and climate. We present a new data set of more than 800 georeferenced fossil diaspore occurrences spanning the Triassic–Oligocene, across low to mid‐ to high palaeolatitudes. We use this to quantify patterns of long‐term change in fleshy diaspores, examining the timing and geographical context of important shifts as a test of the potential evolutionary and climatic explanations. We find that the fleshy fruit sizes of angiosperms increased for much of the Cretaceous, during the early diversification of angiosperms from herbaceous ancestors with small fruits. Nevertheless, this did not cause a substantial net change in the fleshy diaspore size distributions across seed plants, because gymnosperms had achieved a similar size distribution by at least the Late Triassic. Furthermore, gymnosperm‐dominated Mesozoic ecosystems were mostly open, and harboured low proportions of specialised frugivores until the latest Cretaceous, suggesting that changes in vegetation structure and plant–frugivore co‐evolution were probably not important drivers of fleshy diaspore size distributions over long timescales. Instead, fleshy diaspore size distributions may be largely constrained by physical or life‐history limits that are shared among groups and diversify as a plant group expands into different growth forms/sizes, habitats, and climate regimes. Mesozoic gymnosperm floras had a low abundance of fleshy diaspores (<50% fleshy diaspore taxa), that was surpassed by some low‐latitude angiosperm floras in the Cretaceous. Eocene angiosperm floras show a mid‐ to high latitude peak in fleshy fruit abundance, with very high proportions of fleshy fruits that even exceed those seen at low latitudes both in the Eocene and today. Mid‐ to high latitude proportions of fleshy fruits declined substantially over the Eocene–Oligocene transition, resulting in a shift to more modern‐like geographic distributions with the highest proportion of fleshy fruits occurring in low‐latitude tropical assemblages. This shift was coincident with global cooling and the onset of Southern Hemisphere glaciation, suggesting that rapid cooling at mid‐ and high latitudes caused a decrease in availability of the climate conditions most favourable for fleshy fruits in angiosperms. Future research could be focused on examining the environmental niches of modern fleshy fruits, and the potential effects of climate change on fleshy fruit and frugivore diversity.

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A new specimen of the Early Eocene Masillacolius brevidactylus and its implications for the evolution of feeding specializations in mousebirds (Coliiformes)

Cited by 8 publications

References 16 publications

Online repositories of photographs and videos provide insights into the evolution of skilled hindlimb movements in birds

Online repositories of photographs and videos provide insights into the evolution of skilled hindlimb movements in birds

The evolution of skilled hindlimb movements in birds: A citizen science approach

Patterns of variation in fleshy diaspore size and abundance from Late Triassic–Oligocene

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