Adaptations to light contribute to the ecological niches and evolution of the terrestrial avifauna.

ABSTRACT: The role of light in structuring the ecological niche remains a frontier in understanding how vertebrate communities assemble and respond to global change. For birds, eyes represent the primary external anatomical structure specifically evolved to interpret light, yet eye morphology remains understudied compared to movement and dietary traits. Here, I use Stanley Ritland's unpublished measurements of transverse eye diameter from preserved specimens to explore the ecological and phylogenetic drivers of eye morphology for a third of terrestrial avian diversity (N = 2777 species). Species with larger eyes specialized in darker understory and forested habitats, foraging manoeuvres and prey items requiring long-distance optical resolution and were more likely to occur in tropical latitud

SUBMITTER: Ausprey IJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8113912 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature