Blood flow rates to leg bones of extinct birds indicate high levels of cursorial locomotion

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dc.contributor.author Hu, Qiaohui
dc.contributor.author Miller, Case Vincent
dc.contributor.author Snelling, Edward P.
dc.contributor.author Seymour, Roger S.
dc.date.accessioned 2024-09-05T10:11:56Z
dc.date.available 2024-09-05T10:11:56Z
dc.date.issued 2023-11
dc.description.abstract Foramina of bones are beginning to yield more information about metabolic rates and activity levels of living and extinct species. This study investigates the relationship between estimated blood flow rate to the femur and body mass among cursorial birds extending back to the Late Cretaceous. Data from fossil foramina are compared with those of extant species, revealing similar scaling relationships for all cursorial birds and supporting crown bird–like terrestrial locomotor activity. Because the perfusion rate in long bones of birds is related to the metabolic cost of microfracture repair due to stresses applied during locomotion, as it is in mammals, this study estimates absolute blood flow rates from sizes of nutrient foramina located on the femur shafts. After differences in body mass and locomotor behaviors are accounted for, femoral bone blood flow rates in extinct species are similar to those of extant cursorial birds. Femoral robustness is generally greater in aquatic flightless birds than in terrestrial flightless and ground-dwelling flighted birds, suggesting that the morphology is shaped by life-history demands. Femoral robustness also increases in larger cursorial bird taxa, probably associated with their weight redistribution following evolutionary loss of the tail, which purportedly constrains femur length, aligns it more horizontally, and necessitates increased robustness in larger species. en_US
dc.description.department Anatomy and Physiology en_US
dc.description.department Centre for Veterinary Wildlife Studies en_US
dc.description.librarian am2024 en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-03:Good heatlh and well-being en_US
dc.description.sponsorship The Australian Research Council and an University of Hong Kong Postgraduate Scholarship. en_US
dc.description.uri https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology en_US
dc.identifier.citation Hu, Q., Miller, C.V., Snelling, E.P. et al. 2023, 'Blood flow rates to leg bones of extinct birds indicate high levels of cursorial locomotion', Paleobiology, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 700-711. https://DOI.org/10.1017/pab.2023.14 en_US
dc.identifier.issn 0094-8373 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 1938-5331 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.1017/pab.2023.14
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/98044
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Cambridge University Press en_US
dc.rights © The Author(s), 2023. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence. en_US
dc.subject Foramina en_US
dc.subject Metabolic rates en_US
dc.subject Aquatic flightless birds en_US
dc.subject Blood flow en_US
dc.subject SDG-03: Good health and well-being en_US
dc.title Blood flow rates to leg bones of extinct birds indicate high levels of cursorial locomotion en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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