Scaling of avian primary feather length.

The evolution of the avian wing has long fascinated biologists, yet almost no work includes the length of primary feathers in consideration of overall wing length variation. Here we show that the length of the longest primary feather (f(prim)) contributing to overall wing length scales with negative...

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Autores principales:	Robert L Nudds, Gary W Kaiser, Gareth J Dyke
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c61032c04e04425290786dcd861c4574
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:c61032c04e04425290786dcd861c4574
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c61032c04e04425290786dcd861c45742021-11-18T06:59:01ZScaling of avian primary feather length.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0015665https://doaj.org/article/c61032c04e04425290786dcd861c45742011-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21347413/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The evolution of the avian wing has long fascinated biologists, yet almost no work includes the length of primary feathers in consideration of overall wing length variation. Here we show that the length of the longest primary feather (f(prim)) contributing to overall wing length scales with negative allometry against total arm (ta = humerus+ulna+manus). The scaling exponent varied slightly, although not significantly so, depending on whether a species level analysis was used or phylogeny was controlled for using independent contrasts: f(prim) is proportional to ta(0.78-0.82). The scaling exponent was not significantly different from that predicted (0.86) by earlier work. It appears that there is a general trend for the primary feathers of birds to contribute proportionally less, and ta proportionally more, to overall wingspan as this dimension increases. Wingspan in birds is constrained close to mass (M(1/3)) because of optimisation for lift production, which limits opportunities for exterior morphological change. Within the wing, variations in underlying bone and feather lengths nevertheless may, in altering the joint positions, permit a range of different flight styles by facilitating variation in upstroke kinematics.Robert L NuddsGary W KaiserGareth J DykePublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 2, p e15665 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Robert L Nudds Gary W Kaiser Gareth J Dyke Scaling of avian primary feather length.
description	The evolution of the avian wing has long fascinated biologists, yet almost no work includes the length of primary feathers in consideration of overall wing length variation. Here we show that the length of the longest primary feather (f(prim)) contributing to overall wing length scales with negative allometry against total arm (ta = humerus+ulna+manus). The scaling exponent varied slightly, although not significantly so, depending on whether a species level analysis was used or phylogeny was controlled for using independent contrasts: f(prim) is proportional to ta(0.78-0.82). The scaling exponent was not significantly different from that predicted (0.86) by earlier work. It appears that there is a general trend for the primary feathers of birds to contribute proportionally less, and ta proportionally more, to overall wingspan as this dimension increases. Wingspan in birds is constrained close to mass (M(1/3)) because of optimisation for lift production, which limits opportunities for exterior morphological change. Within the wing, variations in underlying bone and feather lengths nevertheless may, in altering the joint positions, permit a range of different flight styles by facilitating variation in upstroke kinematics.
format	article
author	Robert L Nudds Gary W Kaiser Gareth J Dyke
author_facet	Robert L Nudds Gary W Kaiser Gareth J Dyke
author_sort	Robert L Nudds
title	Scaling of avian primary feather length.
title_short	Scaling of avian primary feather length.
title_full	Scaling of avian primary feather length.
title_fullStr	Scaling of avian primary feather length.
title_full_unstemmed	Scaling of avian primary feather length.
title_sort	scaling of avian primary feather length.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/c61032c04e04425290786dcd861c4574
work_keys_str_mv	AT robertlnudds scalingofavianprimaryfeatherlength AT garywkaiser scalingofavianprimaryfeatherlength AT garethjdyke scalingofavianprimaryfeatherlength
_version_	1718424132324950016

Scaling of avian primary feather length.

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