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opencc-zeroApr 2021View details →

Data from: Convergent morphological responses to loss of flight in rails (Aves: Rallidae)

The physiological demands of flight exert strong selection pressure on avian morphology and so it is to be expected that the evolutionary loss of flight capacity would involve profound changes in traits. Here we investigate morphological consequences of flightlessness in a bird family where the condition has evolved repeatedly. The Rallidae include more than 130 recognised species of which over 30 are flightless. Morphological and molecular phylogenetic data were used here to compare species with and without the ability to fly in order to determine major phenotypic effects of the transition from flighted to flightless. We find statistical support for similar morphological response among unrelated flightless lineages, characterised by a shift in energy allocation from the forelimbs to the hindlimbs. Indeed flightless birds exhibit smaller sterna and wings than flighted taxa in the same family along with wider pelves and more robust femora. Phylogenetic signal tests demonstrate that those differences are independent of phylogeny and instead demonstrate convergent morphological adaptation associated with a walking ecology. We found too that morphological variation was greater among flightless rails than flighted ones, suggesting that relaxation of physiological demands during the transition to flightlessness frees morphological traits to evolve in response to more varied ecological opportunities.

publicJan 2025View details →

Data from: Observational and experimental evidence that rapid mass loss is consistent with the flight efficiency hypothesis and not caused by reproductive effort in three passerine species

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publicJun 2020View details →

Data from: Convergent morphological responses to loss of flight in rails (Aves: Rallidae)

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publicFeb 2025View details →

Feather evolution following flight loss in crown group birds: relaxed selection and developmental constraints

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opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: Convergent regulatory evolution and loss of flight in palaeognathous birds

A core question in evolutionary biology is whether convergent phenotypic evolution is driven by convergent molecular changes in proteins or regulatory regions. We combined phylogenomic, developmental, and epigenomic analysis of 11 new genomes of paleognathous birds, including an extinct moa, to show that convergent evolution of regulatory regions, more so than protein-coding genes, is prevalent among developmental pathways associated with independent losses of flight. A Bayesian analysis of 284,001 conserved noncoding elements, 60,665 of which are corroborated as enhancers by open chromatin states during development, identified 2355 independent accelerations along lineages of flightless paleognaths, with functional consequences for driving gene expression in the developing forelimb. Our results suggest that the genomic landscape associated with morphological convergence in ratites has a substantial shared regulatory component.

opencc-zeroOct 2022View details →

Data from: Repeated alpine flight loss within the widespread New Zealand stonefly Nesoperla fulvescens

Flight loss is a common feature of upland insect assemblages, with recent studies detecting parallel wing reduction events across independent alpine lineages. However, the geographic scale over which such repeated evolution can operate remains unclear. In this study, we use genotyping-by-sequencing to assess the genomic relationships among vestigial-winged and full-winged populations of the widespread New Zealand stonefly Nesoperla fulvescens, to test for repeated wing loss events over small spatial scales. Biogeographic analyses indicate that alpine wing loss in this widespread species is restricted to a single, narrow mountain range. Intriguingly, our coalescent analyses indicate that upland vestigial-winged N. fulvescens populations are not sister to one another, suggesting wings have been lost independently in disjunct populations of this species, over a <30 km scale. Our results suggest that selection against flight above the alpine treeline can drive rapid and repeated adaptation even across narrow spatial scales. We propose that such repetitive processes may represent a far more pervasive feature of alpine insect adaptation than is currently recognised.

Fig. 4 in Repeated Alpine Flight Loss Within the Widespread New Zealand Stonefly Nesoperla fulvescens Hare (Plecoptera: Gripopterygidae)

Fig. 4. (A) STRUCTURE plots (K = 2 and K = 3) of Nesoperla fulvescens from three sites across the Tararua Range, based on 39,642 SNP markers. Each vertical bar represents an individual, with color indicating the inferred genomic cluster.The anomalous full-winged individuals from Field and Dundas are indicated with stars (B) The estimated proportion of migrants (+95% HPD intervals) to and from each N. fulvescens population on theTararua Range, derived from BA3-SNPs.

Fig. 3 in Repeated Alpine Flight Loss Within the Widespread New Zealand Stonefly Nesoperla fulvescens Hare (Plecoptera: Gripopterygidae)

Fig. 3. COI haplotype network of Nesoperla fulvescens from five locations. Each circle represents a haplotype, and circles are scaled by size according to the number of sequenced individuals per haplotype. Haplotypes are colored by locality (see key). Uninterrupted lines in the network represent single step mutations. Small open circles indicate hypothetical intermediate (unsampled) haplotypes.

Fig. 2 in Repeated Alpine Flight Loss Within the Widespread New Zealand Stonefly Nesoperla fulvescens Hare (Plecoptera: Gripopterygidae)

Fig. 2. (A) Map of Nesoperla fulvescens sampling sites from in southern North Island, New Zealand. (B) Principal component analyses, based on 39,642 SNP markers, demonstrating the genomic divergence among different N. fulvescens populations. Individuals are colored by geographic location (from A). Vestigialwinged ecotypes are marked with an asterisk.

Fig. 1 in Repeated Alpine Flight Loss Within the Widespread New Zealand Stonefly Nesoperla fulvescens Hare (Plecoptera: Gripopterygidae)

Fig. 1. (A) An alpine grassland tributary of the Hector River (elevation 1350 m above sea-level) on Mt Field,Tararua Range (North Island, New Zealand), where vestigial-winged Nesoperla fulvescens were collected; (B) A vestigial-winged N. fulvescens male from Mt Field; (C) National collection records of N. fulvescens, illustrating the narrow distribution of vestigial-winged ecotypes (Tararua Range).

Fig. 5 in Repeated Alpine Flight Loss Within the Widespread New Zealand Stonefly Nesoperla fulvescens Hare (Plecoptera: Gripopterygidae)

Fig. 5. Coalescent analyses support parallel flight loss events in Nesoperla fulvescens across different portions of theTararua Range. Competing demographic scenarios (A–C) were assessed with DIYABC-RF, with the level of support noted under each scenario (time is not to scale). Stars indicate inferred wing-reduction events, assuming a winged ancestor. Divergence estimates for the scenario with the highest support (outlined) were calculated with DIYABC-RF.

publicOct 2025View details →

Data from: Microallopatric speciation in southern African dung beetle genus Macroderes driven by Miocene aridification and ancestral flight loss

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publicApr 2019View details →

Data from: Convergent regulatory evolution and loss of flight in palaeognathous birds

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