Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in non-aquatic neoavians: Insights from accipitrimorphae.

ABSTRACT: Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity, air-filled bones of the trunk and limbs, is exclusive to birds among extant tetrapods and exhibits significant variation in its expression among different species. Such variation is not random but exhibits relationships with both body mass and locomotor specializations. Most species-level comparative research to date has focused on aquatic-oriented taxa (e.g., Anseriformes). The lack of data from non-aquatic birds constrains our ability to characterize global (i.e., avian-wide) patterns of this trait complex. To address this gap, the study conducted herein quantified postcranial pneumaticity in Accipitrimorphae, a mostly terrestrial clade composed of species that span a range of body sizes and exhibit diverse flight/foraging behaviors. All examined specie

SUBMITTER: Gutherz SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9644947 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature