Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.

The origin of avian flight is a classic macroevolutionary transition with research spanning over a century. Two competing models explaining this locomotory transition have been discussed for decades: ground up versus trees down. Although it is impossible to directly test either of these theories, it...

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Autores principales:	T Alexander Dececchi, Hans C E Larsson
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/210925f0cb2b402badae0d3cd09d1d06
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:210925f0cb2b402badae0d3cd09d1d062021-11-18T06:48:27ZAssessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0022292https://doaj.org/article/210925f0cb2b402badae0d3cd09d1d062011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21857918/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The origin of avian flight is a classic macroevolutionary transition with research spanning over a century. Two competing models explaining this locomotory transition have been discussed for decades: ground up versus trees down. Although it is impossible to directly test either of these theories, it is possible to test one of the requirements for the trees-down model, that of an arboreal paravian. We test for arboreality in non-avian theropods and early birds with comparisons to extant avian, mammalian, and reptilian scansors and climbers using a comprehensive set of morphological characters. Non-avian theropods, including the small, feathered deinonychosaurs, and Archaeopteryx, consistently and significantly cluster with fully terrestrial extant mammals and ground-based birds, such as ratites. Basal birds, more advanced than Archaeopteryx, cluster with extant perching ground-foraging birds. Evolutionary trends immediately prior to the origin of birds indicate skeletal adaptations opposite that expected for arboreal climbers. Results reject an arboreal capacity for the avian stem lineage, thus lending no support for the trees-down model. Support for a fully terrestrial ecology and origin of the avian flight stroke has broad implications for the origin of powered flight for this clade. A terrestrial origin for the avian flight stroke challenges the need for an intermediate gliding phase, presents the best resolved series of the evolution of vertebrate powered flight, and may differ fundamentally from the origin of bat and pterosaur flight, whose antecedents have been postulated to have been arboreal and gliding.T Alexander DececchiHans C E LarssonPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 8, p e22292 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q T Alexander Dececchi Hans C E Larsson Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.
description	The origin of avian flight is a classic macroevolutionary transition with research spanning over a century. Two competing models explaining this locomotory transition have been discussed for decades: ground up versus trees down. Although it is impossible to directly test either of these theories, it is possible to test one of the requirements for the trees-down model, that of an arboreal paravian. We test for arboreality in non-avian theropods and early birds with comparisons to extant avian, mammalian, and reptilian scansors and climbers using a comprehensive set of morphological characters. Non-avian theropods, including the small, feathered deinonychosaurs, and Archaeopteryx, consistently and significantly cluster with fully terrestrial extant mammals and ground-based birds, such as ratites. Basal birds, more advanced than Archaeopteryx, cluster with extant perching ground-foraging birds. Evolutionary trends immediately prior to the origin of birds indicate skeletal adaptations opposite that expected for arboreal climbers. Results reject an arboreal capacity for the avian stem lineage, thus lending no support for the trees-down model. Support for a fully terrestrial ecology and origin of the avian flight stroke has broad implications for the origin of powered flight for this clade. A terrestrial origin for the avian flight stroke challenges the need for an intermediate gliding phase, presents the best resolved series of the evolution of vertebrate powered flight, and may differ fundamentally from the origin of bat and pterosaur flight, whose antecedents have been postulated to have been arboreal and gliding.
format	article
author	T Alexander Dececchi Hans C E Larsson
author_facet	T Alexander Dececchi Hans C E Larsson
author_sort	T Alexander Dececchi
title	Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.
title_short	Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.
title_full	Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.
title_fullStr	Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.
title_full_unstemmed	Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.
title_sort	assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/210925f0cb2b402badae0d3cd09d1d06
work_keys_str_mv	AT talexanderdececchi assessingarborealadaptationsofbirdantecedentstestingtheecologicalsettingoftheoriginoftheavianflightstroke AT hanscelarsson assessingarborealadaptationsofbirdantecedentstestingtheecologicalsettingoftheoriginoftheavianflightstroke
_version_	1718424339591725056

Assessing arboreal adaptations of bird antecedents: testing the ecological setting of the origin of the avian flight stroke.

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