ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2021
Evolutionary versatility of the avian neck.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- A novel homeotic mutation in morphology using skeletal specimens in four breeds of Japanese indigenous chickens.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Constraint and Allometric Diversification in a Simplified Neck: Shape Evolution of the Atlas in Hyloidea (Anura).Biology · 2026Article
- Evolution of the reptile spine reveals independent trajectories to axial skeletal complexity in amniotes.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Permissive and instructiveeLife · 2026Article
- New perspectives on head and neck allometry and ecomorphology in tetrapods.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- The Peculiar Necks of Herons and Anhingas: A Study of Cervical Morphology in Pelecanimorph Birds.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Limb bone robusticity is coupled with mass distribution in terrestrial tetrapods.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Article
- Extreme neck elongation evolved despite strong developmental constraints in bizarre Triassic reptiles-implications for neck modularity in archosaurs.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Article
- The neck as a keystone structure in avian macroevolution and mosaicism.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Comparative morphological study of skeletal muscle weight among the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) and various fowl breeds (Gallus domesticus).Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2022Article
- Cranial ecomorphology of turtles and neck retraction as a possible trigger of ecological diversification.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- The diet of early birds based on modern and fossil evidence and a new framework for its reconstruction.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bird necks display unparalleled levels of morphological diversity compared to other vertebrates, yet it is unclear what factors have structured this variation. Using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics, we show that the avian cervical column is a hierarchical morpho-functional appendage, with varying magnitudes of ecologically driven osteological variation at different scales of organization. Contrary to expectations given the widely varying ecological functions of necks in different species, we find that regional modularity of the avian neck is highly conserved, with an overall structural blueprint that is significantly altered only by the most mechanically demanding ecological functions. Nevertheless, the morphologies of vertebrae within subregions of the neck show more prominent signals of adaptation to ecological pressures. We also find that both neck length allometry and the nature of neck elongation in birds are different from other vertebrates. In contrast with mammals, neck length scales isometrically with head mass and, contrary to previous work, we show that neck elongation in birds is achieved predominantly by increasing vertebral lengths rather than counts. Birds therefore possess a cervical spine that may be unique in its versatility among extant vertebrates, one that, since the origin of flight, has adapted to function as a surrogate forelimb in varied ecological niches.
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