Meeting Abstract
Across the avian tree, species drastically differ in their locomotion style, particularly the extent to which they invest in flight vs. terrestrial locomotion. Bird species are equally as varied in their life histories. We investigated how this investment impacts a species’ life history across five life history traits: rate of development, nest type, flight style, body size, and main method of obtaining food. The diagonal length of the sternal keel and length of the tarsometatarsus were used to quantify the investment in forelimb and hindlimb locomotion, respectively. We measured the long bones and keels of over 2,000 individuals from museum collections, representing the majority of avian families and all major branches of the avian tree. We employed phylogenetic generalized linear models to explore the coevolutionary relationship between flight investment and life history traits. We found the relative investment of forelimbs to hindlimbs was predicted by life history. A species’ investment in their locomotion was well predicted with their primary mode of obtaining food; species that obtained food primarily through ground and arboreal foraging tended to have lower flight investment.
