Data from:Inferring flight parameters of Mesozoic avians through multivariate analyses of forelimb elements in their living relatives

Serrano, Francisco J.1; Palmqvist, Paul1; Chiappe, Luis M.2; Sanz, José L.

Published Aug 16, 2016 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.63k11

Data files

Aug 16, 2016 version files 1.42 MB

Abstract

Our knowledge of the diversity, ecology, and phylogeny of Mesozoic birds has increased significantly during recent decades, yet our understanding of their flight competence remains poor. Wing loading (WL) and aspect ratio (AR) are two aerodynamically relevant parameters, as they relate to energy costs of aerial locomotion and flight maneuverability. They can be calculated in living birds (i.e., Neornithes) from body mass (BM), wingspan (B) and lift surface (SL). However, the estimates for extinct birds can be subject to biases from statistical issues, phylogeny, locomotor adaptations, and diagenetic compaction. Here we develop a sequential approach for generating reliable multivariate models that allow estimating measurements necessary to determine WL and AR in the main clades of non-neornithine Mesozoic birds. The strength of our predictions is supported by the use of those variables that show similar scaling patterns in modern and stem taxa (i.e., non-neornithine birds), and the similarity of our predictions with measurements obtained from fossils preserving wing outlines. In addition, although our WL and AR values are based on estimates (BM, B, and SL) that have an associated error, there is no cumulative error in their calculation, and both parameters show low prediction errors. Therefore we present the first taxonomically broad, error-calibrated estimation of these two important aerodynamic parameters in non-neornithine birds. Such estimates show that the WL and AR of the non-neornithine birds here analyzed fall within the range of variation of modern birds (i.e., Neornithes). Our results indicate that most modern flight modes (e.g., continuous flapping, flap and gliding, flap and bounding, thermal soaring) were possible for the wide range of non-neornithine avian taxa; we found no evidence for the presence of dynamic soaring among these early birds.

Usage notes

Supplementary Figure 1

Cladogram for Neognathae, which includes 71 of the 83 species and 46 of the 49 families used in this study. Calibration of branches (in Myr) and the basal relationships up to the family level followed to Prum et al. (2015). Clade colours also are coded as Prum´s paper: red – Galloanserae; brown – Strisores; purple – Columbaves; yellow – Gruiformes; blue – Aequoritornithes; green – Inopinaves. Intraclade relationships that could not be established and calibrated in our dataset using Prum et al. (2015), were resolved using the specific references indicated by the numbers nearby corresponding clades: 1 – Columba (Jetz et al. 2012); 2 – Rallidae (García-R et al. 2014); 3 – Laridae (Jetz et al. 2012); 4 – Alcidae (Pereira et al. 2008); 5 – Sulidae (Patterson et al. 2011); 6 – Accipitridae (Jetz et al. 2012); 7 – Picidae (Jetz et al. 2012); 8 – Alcedinidae (Jetz et al. 2012); 9 – Psittacidae (Braun et al. 2011); 10 – Cacatuidae (White et al. 2011); 11 – Corvoidea (Kennedy et al. 2012); 12 – Artamidae (Jetz et al. 2012); 13 – Alaudidae (Jetz et al. 2012); 14 – Turdidae (Nylander et al. 2008). References Braun, E. L., et al. (2011). Homoplastic microinversions and the avian tree of life. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 11(1), 141. Garcia-R, J. C., Gibb, G. C., and Trewick, S. A. (2014). Deep global evolutionary radiation in birds: Diversification and trait evolution in the cosmopolitan bird family Rallidae. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 81, 96-108. Jetz, W., Thomas, G. H., Joy, J. B., Hartmann, K., and Mooers, A. O. (2012). The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature, 491(7424), 444-448. Kennedy, J. D., Weir, J. T., Hooper, D. M., Tietze, D. T., Martens, J., and Price, T. D. (2012). Ecological limits on diversification of the Himalayan core Corvoidea. Evolution, 66(8), 2599-2613. Nylander, J. A., Olsson, U., Alström, P., and Sanmartín, I. (2008). Accounting for phylogenetic uncertainty in biogeography: a Bayesian approach to dispersal-vicariance analysis of the thrushes (Aves: Turdus). Systematic Biology, 57(2), 257-268. Pereira, S. L., and Baker, A. J. (2008). DNA evidence for a Paleocene origin of the Alcidae (Aves: Charadriiformes) in the Pacific and multiple dispersals across northern oceans. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 46(2), 430-445. Patterson, S. A., Morris-Pocock, J. A., and Friesen, V. L. (2011). A multilocus phylogeny of the Sulidae (Aves: Pelecaniformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 58(2), 181-191. White, N. E., et al. (2011). The evolutionary history of cockatoos (Aves: Psittaciformes: Cacatuidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 59(3), 615-622.

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Supplementary Table 1

Dataset of non-neornithine Mesozoic birds

Supplementary table 1.txt

Supplementary Table 2

Dataset of modern birds

Supplementary table 2.txt