Biomaterial Database

Distinct developmental pathways underlie independent losses of flight in ratites. 2017

Cynthia Faux, and Daniel J Field

Department of Integrated Physiology and Neurosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA cfaux@vetmed.wsu.edu.

Recent phylogenetic studies question the monophyly of ratites (large, flightless birds incorporating ostriches, rheas, kiwis, emus and cassowaries), suggesting their paraphyly with respect to flying tinamous (Tinamidae). Flightlessness and large body size have thus likely evolved repeatedly among ratites, and separately in ostriches (Struthio) and emus (Dromaius). Here, we test this hypothesis with data from wing developmental trajectories in ostriches, emus, tinamous and chickens. We find the rate of ostrich embryonic wing growth falls within the range of variation exhibited by flying taxa (tinamous and chickens), but that of emus is extremely slow. These results indicate flightlessness was acquired by different developmental mechanisms in the ancestors of ostriches (peramorphosis) and the emu-cassowary clade (paedomorphosis), and corroborate the hypothesis that flight loss has evolved repeatedly among ratites.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010802	Phylogeny	The relationships of groups of organisms as reflected by their genetic makeup.	Community Phylogenetics,Molecular Phylogenetics,Phylogenetic Analyses,Phylogenetic Analysis,Phylogenetic Clustering,Phylogenetic Comparative Analysis,Phylogenetic Comparative Methods,Phylogenetic Distance,Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares,Phylogenetic Groups,Phylogenetic Incongruence,Phylogenetic Inference,Phylogenetic Networks,Phylogenetic Reconstruction,Phylogenetic Relatedness,Phylogenetic Relationships,Phylogenetic Signal,Phylogenetic Structure,Phylogenetic Tree,Phylogenetic Trees,Phylogenomics,Analyse, Phylogenetic,Analysis, Phylogenetic,Analysis, Phylogenetic Comparative,Clustering, Phylogenetic,Community Phylogenetic,Comparative Analysis, Phylogenetic,Comparative Method, Phylogenetic,Distance, Phylogenetic,Group, Phylogenetic,Incongruence, Phylogenetic,Inference, Phylogenetic,Method, Phylogenetic Comparative,Molecular Phylogenetic,Network, Phylogenetic,Phylogenetic Analyse,Phylogenetic Clusterings,Phylogenetic Comparative Analyses,Phylogenetic Comparative Method,Phylogenetic Distances,Phylogenetic Group,Phylogenetic Incongruences,Phylogenetic Inferences,Phylogenetic Network,Phylogenetic Reconstructions,Phylogenetic Relatednesses,Phylogenetic Relationship,Phylogenetic Signals,Phylogenetic Structures,Phylogenetic, Community,Phylogenetic, Molecular,Phylogenies,Phylogenomic,Reconstruction, Phylogenetic,Relatedness, Phylogenetic,Relationship, Phylogenetic,Signal, Phylogenetic,Structure, Phylogenetic,Tree, Phylogenetic
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D046108	Palaeognathae	A superorder of large, mostly flightless birds, named for their distinctive PALATE morphology. It includes the orders Apterygiformes, Casuriiformes, Dinornithiformes, RHEIFORMES; STRUTHIONIFORMES and Tinamiformes.	Ratites,Kiwi Bird,Bird, Kiwi,Ratite