Meeting Abstract
The ability of a flying animal to maneuver can be critical for survival. How do morphological traits determine agility? To address this question, we developed an approach to analyze thousands of rotations, accelerations, and turns, as the geometrical building blocks of complex flight. To relate morphology to maneuverability, we recorded flight performance from over 200 individuals in 25 hummingbird species. We used multilevel regression models to analyze variation both within and among species, accounting for phylogenetic nonindependence. The advantage of the comparative approach is that evolution repeatedly explores new variants, making it possible to determine the contribution of several morphological and biomechanical traits. We found that larger hummingbird species have evolved disproportionately larger wings and muscle capacity, which allows them to outmaneuver smaller species (overcoming their size-based disadvantage). This demonstrates how multilevel models can be used to reveal compensatory evolution. Our current work investigates whether species differ in the predictability of flight maneuvers. We will address whether predictability and the level of performance are associated with different morphologies, representing a potential tradeoff.
