Kinematics and Mechanisms of Sonation in Birds

鸟类发声的运动学和机制本项目将通过研究鸟类如何产生特殊的交流翅膀声音或发声，来探索动物的身体形状和行为是如何共同进化的。来自热带的一群鸟，Pipridae，能发出特别极端和多样化的声音。为了更好地了解它们的翅膀是如何发出声音的，将对近12种锥虫进行检查。将使用高速视频来确定在声音产生过程中使用的肢体运动。对特殊羽毛的实验操作将被用来确定如何使用羽毛“乐器”来产生独特的持续、和谐的声音。博物馆标本的数字辅助解剖和CT扫描将被用来模拟翅膀骨骼和肌肉的形状和大小的变化如何影响翅膀的功能。由于被研究物种之间的关系是已知的，而且这些物种之间存在适当的变异，因此这些信息将有助于确定导致这一专门交流系统进化的事件的顺序。这项研究的智力优势来自于为一个研究较少的现象产生新的数据，从现场对象产生最先进的运动学数据，为鸟类的翅膀功能提供洞察力，产生可通过宏观进化测试验证的功能假说，并通过研究行为进化和形态之间的相互作用来解决丁伯根的“起源和转变”问题。这项研究的影响将通过培训学生，向拉丁美洲社区介绍这项研究背后的原则，以及制作一部高质量的视频纪录片分发给全国博物馆来实现。

Kinematics and Mechanisms of Sonation in BirdsThis project will explore how body shape and behavior co-evolve in animals, by examining how birds produce special communicative wing- sounds, or sonations. One group of birds from the tropics, the Pipridae, produces particularly extreme and diverse sonations. Nearly a dozen species of piprids will be examined to better understand how their wings produce sound. High-speed video will be used to determine the limb motions used during sound production. Experimental manipulation of specialized feathers will be used to determine how the feather "instruments" are employed to produce a unique sustained, harmonically-toned sound. Digitally-aided dissections and CT scans of museum specimens will be used to model how changes in the shapes and sizes of wing bones and muscles have influenced how the wing functions. Because the relationships among the examined species are known, and because appropriate variation exists among these species, this information will be useful in determining the sequence of events that lead to the evolution of this specialized system of communication.The intellectual merits of this research come from generating new data on a poorly studied phenomenon, generating state-of-the-art kinematic data from field subjects, lending insight to avian wing function, generating functional hypotheses testable by macroevolutionary tests, and addressing Tinbergen's "origin and transformation" question by examining the interplay between the evolution of behavior and morphology. The impacts of this research will be made through training students, introducing Latin American communities to the principles behind this research, and the production of a high-quality video documentary for distribution to museums nationwide.