Imperial College London
Alternate

DrArkhatAbzhanov

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Reader in Evolution and Developmental Genetics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

a.abzhanov

 
 
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Location

 

Munro 2.15MunroSilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Tokita:2016:10.1098/rstb.2015.0481,
author = {Tokita, M and Yano, W and James, HF and Abzhanov, A},
doi = {10.1098/rstb.2015.0481},
journal = {Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences},
title = {Cranial shape evolution in adaptive radiations of birds: comparative morphometrics of Darwin's finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0481},
volume = {372},
year = {2016}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Adaptive radiation is the rapid evolution of morphologically and ecologically diverse species from a single ancestor. The two classic examples of adaptive radiation are Darwin's finches and the Hawaiian honeycreepers, which evolved remarkable levels of adaptive cranial morphological variation. To gain new insights into the nature of their diversification, we performed comparative three-dimensional geometric morphometric analyses based on X-ray microcomputed tomography (µCT) scanning of dried cranial skeletons. We show that cranial shapes in both Hawaiian honeycreepers and Coerebinae (Darwin's finches and their close relatives) are much more diverse than in their respective outgroups, but Hawaiian honeycreepers as a group display the highest diversity and disparity of all other bird groups studied. We also report a significant contribution of allometry to skull shape variation, and distinct patterns of evolutionary change in skull morphology in the two lineages of songbirds that underwent adaptive radiation on oceanic islands. These findings help to better understand the nature of adaptive radiations in general and provide a foundation for future investigations on the developmental and molecular mechanisms underlying diversification of these morphologically distinguished groups of birds.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Evo-devo in the genomics era, and the origins of morphological diversity’.
AU  - Tokita,M
AU  - Yano,W
AU  - James,HF
AU  - Abzhanov,A
DO  - 10.1098/rstb.2015.0481
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 0962-8436
TI  - Cranial shape evolution in adaptive radiations of birds: comparative morphometrics of Darwin's finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers
T2  - Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0481
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/50396
VL  - 372
ER  -
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