Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), La Plata, Argentina.
Laboratorio de Histología y Embriología Descriptiva, Experimental y Comparada (LHYEDEC), Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Av. 60 y 118, Buenos Aires, 1900, Argentina.
Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 14;15(1):9888. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54297-9.
Avian evolution led to morphological adaptive variations in feet. Diverse foot types are accompanied by a diverse muscle system, allowing birds to adopt different primary lifestyles, and to display various locomotor and manipulative skills. We provide insights of evolutionary and functional significance on the avian foot architecture through Anatomical Network Analysis, a methodology focused on connectivity patterns of anatomical parts. Here, we show that: (1) anatomical parts largely conserved in living birds and already present in ancestral dinosaurs exhibit the highest connectivity degree, (2) there is no link between the more complex foot networks and the ability to perform more specialized skills or a higher number of different tasks, (3) there is a trend towards the simplification of foot networks on a macroevolutionary scale within birds, and (4) foot networks are phylogenetically constrained and conserved in all birds despite their foot type diversity, probably due to stabilizing selection.
鸟类的进化导致了足部形态适应性的变化。不同的足部类型伴随着不同的肌肉系统，使鸟类能够采用不同的主要生活方式，并展示各种运动和操纵技能。我们通过解剖网络分析提供了关于鸟类足部结构的进化和功能意义的见解，这是一种专注于解剖部分连接模式的方法。在这里，我们表明：（1）在现生鸟类中大量保存的、在祖龙中已经存在的解剖部分表现出最高的连接度；（2）更复杂的足部网络与执行更专门的技能或更多不同任务的能力之间没有联系；（3）在鸟类的宏观进化尺度上，足部网络有简化的趋势；（4）尽管鸟类的足部类型多样，但足部网络在所有鸟类中都是受到系统发育限制和保守的，这可能是由于稳定选择。
