ArticleScientific reports2019
Phylogeny and herbivory are related to avian cecal size.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Comparison of barium sulphate and iohexol for gastrointestinal transit time in Barn owls (Tyto alba).BMC veterinary research · 2026Article
- Impact of dietary replacement of soybean meal with high-protein wheat on gut microbial metabolism in chickens.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Region-Specific Gut Microbiome Variation Between Changle Geese and Yellow-Feathered Broilers: Correlations with Growth and Intestinal Development.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Comparative Analysis of Gastrointestinal Morphology and Enteric Nervous System Organization in Mallard, Tufted Duck, and Green-Winged Teal.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Metagenomics reveals fibre fermentation and AMR pathways in red grouse (Lagopus scotica) microbiota.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Exploring the relationship betweenComputational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Review
- Trophic guilds differ in blood glucose concentrations: a phylogenetic comparative analysis in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The Impact of Early-Life Cecal Microbiota Transplantation on Social Stress and Injurious Behaviors in Egg-Laying Chickens.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- Modulation of Immunity, Antioxidant Status, Performance, Blood Hematology, and Intestinal Histomorphometry in Response to Dietary Inclusion ofLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Diet, habitat and flight characteristics correlate with intestine length in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Cecal Microbial Hydrogen Cycling Potential Is Linked to Feed Efficiency Phenotypes in Chickens.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Article
- Phylogeny, body morphology, and trophic level shape intestinal traits in coral reef fishes.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Mammalian intestinal allometry, phylogeny, trophic level and climate.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Sixty-One Volatiles Have Phylogenetic Signals Across Bacterial Domain and Fungal Kingdom.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Avian ceca, a pair of blind sacs arising from the junction of the ileum and colon, are homologous to the cecum in mammals. Cecal size is hypothesized to depend on dietary proclivities and pressures, with faunivorous species having short ceca, whereas herbivorous species have long ceca. Previous tests of this hypothesis, however, did not account for phylogenetic pseudoreplication among closely related taxa. We collated published data on cecal length, dietary category, flying ability, and body mass from 155 avian taxa. Character states were mapped onto a phylogenetic framework, and the permutation tail probability test was used to detect phylogenetic signal in each character. Phylogenetic signal is significant among the characters. As with the cecoappendicular complex in mammals, closely-related birds tend to have similar cecal length. To account for phylogenetic pseudoreplication, we performed phylogenetic generalized least squares regression on cecal length and body mass with dietary category, superordinal-level clade, and flying ability as cofactors. The best-fitting regression model supports the dietary hypothesis for the avian cecum. Among sampled birds of comparable body mass, mean cecal length is significantly longer in herbivorous species than in carnivorous ones (p = 0.008), presumably allowing the extraction of nutrients without the burden of fermenting bulky masses of dietary fiber. Exceptions to this trend, however, suggest that avian ceca are functionally complex and may have additional roles in water balance and nitrogen recycling.
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