Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 356, Issue 6344, Pages 1249-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaj1945
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Funding
- Princeton University
- L'Oreal USA For Women in Science Fellowship
- L'Oreal-UNESCO International Rising Talents Fellowship
- Harvard Society of Fellows
- Milton Fund
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore [M4081583]
- Oxford Clarendon Fund
- U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/I028068/1]
- MacArthur Foundation
- Radcliffe Institute
- Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley - NSF [0646475]
- NERC [NE/I028068/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/I028068/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Avian egg shape is generally explained as an adaptation to life history, yet we currently lack a global synthesis of how egg-shape differences arise and evolve. Here, we apply morphometric, mechanistic, and macroevolutionary analyses to the egg shapes of 1400 bird species. We characterize egg-shape diversity in terms of two biologically relevant variables, asymmetry and ellipticity, allowing us to quantify the observed morphologies in a two-dimensional morphospace. We then propose a simple mechanical model that explains the observed egg-shape diversity based on geometric and material properties of the egg membrane. Finally, using phylogenetic models, we show that egg shape correlates with flight ability on broad taxonomic scales, suggesting that adaptations for flight may have been critical drivers of egg-shape variation in birds.
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