Wing-skeleton morphometrics and flight in birds

The central adaptation of birds is flight and it is the dominant selection pressure driving their morphology. Wing morphology has evolved in response to flight behaviour, which is influenced by a species’ ecology, and the external wing-morphology of extant birds is reflected by their wing-skeleton and vice versa. For example, in a hummingbird, emphasis is on the primary feathers to facilitate hovering and consequently, the hand-wing is relatively lengthened. In soaring birds such as an albatross, the part of the forelimb that supports the secondary feathers is relatively long and conversely the hand-wing relatively short. There is also evidence showing that wing-kinematics is correlated with wing-skeletal anatomy. Therefore, by quantifying wing-skeleton shape, it should be possible to predict overall wing-shape, wing-kinematics and from these, flight behaviour.

The aim of the project will be to determine the relationships between the wing-skeleton morphology, wing-kinematics, and wing-shape of extant birds. This data may then be extrapolated to hypothesise the wing-shape and kinematics of fossil birds. The main techniques used will be landmark-based geometric morphometrics for quantifying wing-skeleton morphology and high-speed video for quantifying wing-kinematics.