Morphometric analysis of the kingfisher cranium (AVES)

Brusaferro, Andrea; Insom, Emilio

doi:10.1080/11250000802283352

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…3B, table 1). Kingfishers also showed more brain shape variation than previously reported (Brusaferro and Insom 2009). Aristide et al (2016) similarly showed extensive brain shape variation across new world monkeys linked to distinct foraging and dietary niches, and Carril et al (2016) found two distinct brain morphotypes inferred from 3D digital endocasts in Neotropical parrots.…”

Section: A Novel Methods For Studying Brain Shape In Rapid Radiationsmentioning

confidence: 55%

Accelerated Brain Shape Evolution Is Associated with Rapid Diversification in an Avian Radiation

Eliason

McCullough

Andersen

et al. 2021

The American Naturalist

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Niche expansion is a critical step in the speciation process. Large brains linked to improved cognitive ability may enable species to expand their niches and forage in new ways, thereby promoting speciation. Despite considerable work on ecological divergence in brain size and its importance in speciation, relatively little is known about how brain shape relates to behavioral, ecological, and taxonomic diversity at macroevolutionary scales. This is due, in part, to inherent challenges with quantifying brain shape across many species.Here, we present a novel, semiautomated approach for rapidly phenotyping brain shape using semilandmarks derived from X-ray computed micro-tomography (microCT) scans.We then test its utility by parsing evolutionary trends within a diverse radiation of birds, kingfishers (Aves: Alcedinidae). Multivariate comparative analyses reveal that rates of brain shape evolution, but not beak shape, are positively correlated with lineage diversification rates. Distinct brain shapes are further associated with changes in body size and foraging behavior, suggesting both allometric and ecological constraints on brain shape evolution. These results are in line with the idea of brains acting as a "master regulator" of critical processes governing speciation, such as dispersal, foraging behavior, and dietary niche.

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Section: A Novel Methods For Studying Brain Shape In Rapid Radiationsmentioning

confidence: 55%

Accelerated Brain Shape Evolution Is Associated with Rapid Diversification in an Avian Radiation

Eliason

McCullough

Andersen

et al. 2021

The American Naturalist

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“…Slotow (2000) found that fish‐eating kingfishers had proportionally longer beaks for their body sizes relative to insectivorous species. Brusaferro and Insom (2009) looked at cranial variation in a non‐phylogenetic context for 30 kingfisher species using 2D landmark data extracted from photographs of dorsal and ventral views of skulls. They found that beaks are larger (i.e., greater in volume), as well as shorter and wider in nonpiscivores.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological innovation and biomechanical diversity in plunge‐diving birds

et al. 2020

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Innovations in foraging behavior can drive morphological diversity by opening up new ways of interacting with the environment, or limit diversity through functional constraints associated with different foraging behaviors. Several classic examples of adaptive radiations in birds show increased variation in ecologically relevant traits. However, these cases primarily focus on geographically narrow adaptive radiations, consider only morphological evolution without a biomechanical approach, or do not investigate tradeoffs with other non‐focal traits that might be affected by use of different foraging habitats. Here, we use X‐ray microcomputed tomography, biomechanical modeling, and multivariate comparative methods to explore the interplay between foraging behavior and cranial morphology in kingfishers, a global radiation of birds with variable beaks and foraging behaviors, including the archetypal plunge‐dive into water. Our results quantify covariation between the shape of the outer keratin covering (rhamphotheca) and the inner skeletal core of the beak, as well as highlight distinct patterns of morphospace occupation for different foraging behaviors and considerable rate variation among these skull regions. We anticipate these findings will have implications for inferring beak shapes in fossil taxa and inform biomimetic design of novel impact‐reducing structures.

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“…Since the species under study belong to different families (Table S1), we also took into account the influence of phylogeny on the variation of skull shape. It was noted earlier that the shape of a skull is associated with phylogeny, so that related bird species have more similar skull shapes (Brusaferro and Insom 2009;Degrange and Picasso 2010).…”

Section: R a F Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative skull size as one of the factors limiting skull shape variation in passerines

Shatkovska

Ghazali

2021

Can. J. Zool.

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Despite a considerable interest of researchers to the issue of variation in skull shapes of birds and factors influencing it, some drivers associated with the design features of an entire bird body, which are important for both successful terrestrial locomotion and flight, are overlooked. One of such factors, in our opinion, is relative skull size (skull length in relation to body mass), which can affect the position of the body's center of gravity. We tested effects of relative skull size, allometry (i.e. absolute skull size), and diet on variation in skull shape. The study was conducted on 50 songbird species with a wide range of body mass (8.3g to 570g) and dietary preferences (granivores, insectivores/granivores, insectivores, omnivores). Skull shape was analyzed using 2D geometric morphometrics. We revealed that similar patterns of skull shape occur among passerines with different body sizes and diets. The relative skull size predicted skull shape to a similar extent and with a similar pattern as the absolute size. In our opinion, the effect of the relative skull size on skull shape variation is likely due to biomechanical constraints related to flight.

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Morphometric analysis of the kingfisher cranium (AVES)

Cited by 12 publications

References 16 publications

Accelerated Brain Shape Evolution Is Associated with Rapid Diversification in an Avian Radiation

Accelerated Brain Shape Evolution Is Associated with Rapid Diversification in an Avian Radiation

Morphological innovation and biomechanical diversity in plunge‐diving birds

Relative skull size as one of the factors limiting skull shape variation in passerines

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