High Wing-Loading Correlates with Dive Performance in Birds, Suggesting a Strategy to Reduce Buoyancy
High Wing-Loading Correlates with Dive Performance in Birds, Suggesting a Strategy to Reduce Buoyancy
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DOI：
10.1093/icb/icac117
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发表时间：
2022-07-09
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Tobalske, Bret W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lapsansky, Anthony B.;Warrick, Douglas R.;Tobalske, Bret W.
潜水鸟被认为是形态趋同的典型例子。潜水员往往有小翅膀从圆形的身体延伸，需要许多能飞的物种与快速翅拍飞行，并使其他人无法飞行。潜水鸟的高翼负荷通常与使用适合飞行的前肢在“拖曳”流体中运动的挑战有关，但这并不能解释为什么完全依靠脚潜水的物种应该有相对较小的翅膀。因此，其他人假设，翼推进和脚推进的潜水鸟共享的生态因素驱动了高翼载荷的进化。在重新审视鸟类的水生习性之后，我们使用新的比较数据和遗传学分析来测试试图解释潜水员高翼载的假设。我们发现很少有证据表明翼推进潜水选择小翅膀，因为翼推进和脚推进的物种共享类似的翼负载。相反，我们的研究结果表明，减少浮力的选择驱动了潜水员的高翼载，为鸟类水生机器人的发展提供了见解。
Diving birds are regarded as a classic example of morphological convergence. Divers tend to have small wings extending from rotund bodies, requiring many volant species to fly with rapid wingbeats, and rendering others flightless. The high wing-loading of diving birds is frequently associated with the challenge of using forelimbs adapted for flight for locomotion in a "draggier" fluid, but this does not explain why species that rely exclusively on their feet to dive should have relatively small wings, as well. Therefore, others have hypothesized that ecological factors shared by wing-propelled and foot-propelled diving birds drive the evolution of high wing-loading. Following a reexamination of the aquatic habits of birds, we tested between hypotheses seeking to explain high wing-loading in divers using new comparative data and phylogenetically informed analyses. We found little evidence that wing-propelled diving selects for small wings, as wing-propelled and foot-propelled species share similar wing-loadings. Instead, our results suggest that selection to reduce buoyancy has driven high wing-loading in divers, offering insights for the development of bird-like aquatic robots.