Title |
Functional morphology and integration of corvid skulls – a 3D geometric morphometric approach
|
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Published in |
Frontiers in Zoology, January 2009
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DOI | 10.1186/1742-9994-6-2 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Christoph Kulemeyer, Kolja Asbahr, Philipp Gunz, Sylke Frahnert, Franz Bairlein |
Abstract |
Sympatric corvid species have evolved differences in nesting, habitat choice, diet and foraging. Differences in the frequency with which corvid species use their repertoire of feeding techniques is expected to covary with bill-shape and with the frontal binocular field. Species that frequently probe are expected to have a relatively longer bill and more sidewise oriented orbits in contrast to species that frequently peck. We tested this prediction by analyzing computed tomography scans of skulls of six corvid species by means of three-dimensional geometric morphometrics. We (1) explored patterns of major variation using principal component analysis, (2) compared within and between species relationships of size and shape and (3) quantitatively compared patterns of morphological integration between bill and cranium by means of partial least squares (singular warp) analysis. |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 4 | 2% |
Argentina | 3 | 1% |
Germany | 1 | <1% |
Mexico | 1 | <1% |
Brazil | 1 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
Serbia | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 244 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 55 | 21% |
Researcher | 42 | 16% |
Student > Bachelor | 36 | 14% |
Student > Master | 29 | 11% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 19 | 7% |
Other | 45 | 18% |
Unknown | 30 | 12% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 157 | 61% |
Earth and Planetary Sciences | 16 | 6% |
Environmental Science | 12 | 5% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 8 | 3% |
Engineering | 4 | 2% |
Other | 22 | 9% |
Unknown | 37 | 14% |