The biomechanical origin of extreme wing allometry in hummingbirds.

ABSTRACT: Flying animals of different masses vary widely in body proportions, but the functional implications of this variation are often unclear. We address this ambiguity by developing an integrative allometric approach, which we apply here to hummingbirds to examine how the physical environment, wing morphology and stroke kinematics have contributed to the evolution of their highly specialised flight. Surprisingly, hummingbirds maintain constant wing velocity despite an order of magnitude variation in body weight; increased weight is supported solely through disproportionate increases in wing area. Conversely, wing velocity increases with body weight within species, compensating for lower relative wing area in larger individuals. By comparing inter- and intraspecific allometries, we find that the

SUBMITTER: Skandalis DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5715027 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature