Osteology of the feeding apparatus of Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens and Brown Booby Sula leucogaster (Aves: Suliformes)

Carlos, Caio J.; Alvarenga, Jéssica Guimarães; Mazzochi, Mariana Scain

doi:10.11606/0031-1049.2017.57.20

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…(ii) Lever models of extant birds. Small-scope studies of avian MA include those on cormorant (Phalacrocorax) species (Burger, 1978) and suliform birds (Carlos, Alvarenga & Mazzochi, 2017). Both found higher MA to correlate with capturing large prey and lower MA to correlate with hunting small, fast-moving prey.…”

Section: (A) Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further research may translate UBF into a set of possible dietary categories: taxa with tearing UBFs are often raptorial, cracking UBFs at least partly granivorous, etc. It is of note that all quantitative dietary analyses of avian skull MA have focused on the upper jaw, with those regarding the lower jaw (Burger, 1978;Carlos et al, 2017) being purely qualitative (but see Fig. S4).…”

Section: (A) Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The diet of early birds based on modern and fossil evidence and a new framework for its reconstruction

Miller

Pittman

2021

Biological Reviews

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Birds are some of the most diverse organisms on Earth, with species inhabiting a wide variety of niches across every major biome. As such, birds are vital to our understanding of modern ecosystems. Unfortunately, our understanding of the evolutionary history of modern ecosystems is hampered by knowledge gaps in the origin of modern bird diversity and ecosystem ecology. A crucial part of addressing these shortcomings is improving our understanding of the earliest birds, the non-avian avialans (i.e. non-crown birds), particularly of their diet. The diet of non-avian avialans has been a matter of debate, in large part because of the ambiguous qualitative approaches that have been used to reconstruct it. Here we review methods for determining diet in modern and fossil avians (i.e. crown birds) as well as non-avian theropods, and comment on their usefulness when applied to non-avian avialans. We use this to propose a set of comparable, quantitative approaches to ascertain fossil bird diet and on this basis provide a consensus of what we currently know about fossil bird diet. While no single approach can precisely predict diet in birds, each can exclude some diets and narrow the dietary possibilities. We recommend combining (i) dental microwear, (ii) landmark-based muscular reconstruction, (iii) stable isotope geochemistry, (iv) body mass estimations, (v) traditional and/or geometric morphometric analysis, (vi) lever modelling, and (vii) finite element analysis to reconstruct fossil bird diet accurately. Our review provides specific methodologies to implement each approach and discusses complications future researchers should keep in mind. We note that current forms of assessment of dental mesowear, skull traditional morphometrics, geometric morphometrics, and certain stable isotope systems have yet to be proven effective at discerning fossil bird diet. On this basis we report the current state of knowledge of non-avian avialan diet which remains very incomplete. The ancestral dietary condition in non-avian avialans remains unclear due to scarce data and contradictory evidence in Archaeopteryx. Among early non-avian pygostylians, Confuciusornis has finite element analysis and mechanical advantage evidence pointing to herbivory, whilst Sapeornis only has mechanical advantage evidence indicating granivory, agreeing with fossilised ingested material known for this taxon. The enantiornithine ornithothoracine Shenqiornis has mechanical advantage and pedal morphometric evidence pointing to carnivory. In the hongshanornithid ornithuromorph Hongshanornis only mechanical advantage evidence indicates granivory, but this agrees with evidence of gastrolith ingestion in this taxon. Mechanical advantage and ingested fish support carnivory in the songlingornithid ornithuromorph Yanornis. Due to the sparsity of robust dietary assignments, no clear trends in non-avian avialan dietary evolution have yet emerged. Dietary diversity seems to increase through time, but this is a preservational bias associated with a predominance of data fro...

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Section: (A) Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (A) Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%