项目编号: | 1500798
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项目名称: | Dissertation Research: Origin of the modern avian locomotor system across a neglected evolutionary interval: insight from new methods and new fossils |
作者: | Bhart-Anjan Bhullar
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承担单位: | Yale University
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批准年: | 2014
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开始日期: | 2015-07-01
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结束日期: | 2016-06-30
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资助金额: | USD21203
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资助来源: | US-NSF
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项目类别: | Standard Grant
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国家: | US
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语种: | 英语
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特色学科分类: | Biological Sciences - Environmental Biology
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英文关键词: | pivotal fossil stem bird
; fossil taxa
; bird
; morphological system
; rigorous statistical method
; mesozoic fossil
; extant bird
; spectacular new fossil material
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英文摘要: | Despite the biological novelty of avian flight, little is known about what the most recent common ancestor of birds looked like, nor about how that ancestor flew. Using spectacular new fossil material, sophisticated imaging techniques, and rigorous statistical methods, this research will reconstruct the most likely anatomical and functional attributes of the most recent common ancestor of living birds, bringing us closer to understanding how modern birds and their flying ability came to be. Through museum exhibits, media exposure, and innovative online activities, this project has strong potential to educate both children and adults about evolutionary biology and paleontology.
The study will begin with allometric analysis of a comprehensive sampling of fossil taxa. Preliminary results from this analysis (based on >13,000 data points from extant birds) indicate a fundamental allometric division between extant flying and flightless birds. This division, based on the relationship between shoulder joint dimensions and body mass, enables, for the first time, the delineation of well-defined ?flying? and ?flightless? zones for morphology. This novel biomechanical ?test? of powered flying potential can easily be applied to Mesozoic fossils, and preliminary results indicate that the acquisition of a biomechanically favorable shoulder:body mass ratio, enabling powered flight, evolved considerably later in avian evolutionary history than is conventionally assumed. These results set the stage for a novel geometric analysis of Mesozoic stem bird postcrania, which will illustrate when the geometrically modern avian flight apparatus arose, and will shed light on the evolutionary dynamics of this deeply integrated morphological system. Next, the study will focus on the avian crown clade, and will generate the first ever three-dimensional in situ muscle and feather reconstructions of adult extant birds, which will facilitate the robust inference of flight muscle morphology for the most recent ancestor of extant birds. This will form the basis of range-of-motion simulations for the flight apparatus of two pivotal fossil stem birds, validated by data from diverse extant taxa. Together, the project outlined here will rigorously document and mechanically interpret one of the most important functional transitions in vertebrate evolutionary history?the acquisition of modern, powered flying ability in birds. |
资源类型: | 项目
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标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/94149
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Appears in Collections: | 影响、适应和脆弱性 气候减缓与适应
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Recommended Citation: |
Bhart-Anjan Bhullar. Dissertation Research: Origin of the modern avian locomotor system across a neglected evolutionary interval: insight from new methods and new fossils. 2014-01-01.
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