Dissertação
Hábito alimentar e história evolutiva moldam a forma do bico dos passeriformes da Mata Atlântica
Fecha
2018-03-28Autor
Oliveira, Katrine Pecetti de
Institución
Resumen
In the present study, we aimed to analyze the effect of the feeding habit, phylogenetic history,
size and habitat in the beak shape of the Atlantic Forest passerine birds, as a whole group and
also comparing the two suborders Passeri and Tyranni. We used geometric morphometrics to
quantify beak shape of 1070 specimens from 386 species of the order Passeriform. We
classified each species diet accordingly to the main feeding categories observed for the group,
the habitat as open or closed and how they occupy the vegetation vertical stratum. Using a
phylogeny in the literature, we recovered the evolutionary history of the group. The effect of
size, habitat and vertical stratum in the beak shape were non-existence accordingly to our
analyses. Our results indicate that feeding habits have strong influence on shaping the beak of
passerines, although most of this influence is associated with a strong phylogenetic effect in the
whole group. Suborder Passeri presented a stronger relationship with feeding habit and greater
variability in beak shape, when compared with Tyranii. This high morphological disparity can
be associated with the adaptive speciation events which occurred in the group after their arrival
in South America. In contrast, the beak shape of Tyranni had stronger correlation with
phylogeny and less morphological disparity. This indicates the last has a more conservative
morphology and feeding habits in respect to its phylogenetic history, since most families of this
suborder are mostly insectivores.