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Phylogeny and foraging behaviour shape modular morphological variation in bat humeri.

Camilo López-Aguirre1, Suzanne J Hand1, Daisuke Koyabu2,3

  • 1Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Journal of Anatomy
|December 29, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers studied bat humerus shape, finding that bone structure varies with evolutionary history, diet, and foraging behavior. This reveals modularity in bat limb evolution, linking bone shape to ecological roles.

Keywords:
Chiropteraforaging ecologyfunctional morphologygeometric morphometricshumerusmodularity

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Area of Science:

  • Comparative anatomy
  • Ecomorphology
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Biomechanics

Background:

  • Bats exhibit significant ecological diversity, reflected in their diets and foraging strategies.
  • Cranial adaptations to diet are well-studied, but postcranial adaptations, particularly in the humerus, and their link to foraging remain underexplored.
  • Previous research on wing adaptations primarily focused on aerodynamic properties like wing loading (WL) and aspect ratio (AR).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the phylogenetic, ecological, and biological drivers of humeral morphology in bats.
  • To evaluate modularity and integration within the bat humerus.
  • To examine correlations between humeral shape, traditional aerodynamic traits, and ecological factors.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized 3D virtual modeling and geometric morphometrics (GMM) to analyze humeral shape variation.
  • Examined whole-bone shape, diaphyseal (shaft) shape, and epiphyseal (end) shape to identify decoupled patterns.
  • Studied 37 bat species across 20 families, representing diverse foraging guilds (FGs) and dietary guilds.

Main Results:

  • Whole-bone and diaphyseal humeral shape showed similar variation patterns, while epiphyseal shape exhibited unique patterns.
  • Phylogeny, diet, and foraging guild significantly influenced shape variation at all levels; size primarily affected epiphyseal morphology.
  • Significant phylogenetic signal was detected across all humeral shape levels; epiphyseal shape correlated with wing aspect ratio (AR).

Conclusions:

  • The humerus displays diaphyseal-epiphyseal modularity, suggesting functional partitioning of shape variability.
  • This study is the first to demonstrate within-structure modular morphological variation in the appendicular skeleton of a tetrapod.
  • Diaphyseal humeral shape is primarily driven by phylogeny, whereas epiphyseal shape is strongly linked to diet and foraging guild.