Premium
The evolution of avian retinal morphology and its relationship with locomotor head movements and foraging
Author(s) -
Hancock Jennifer Ann,
Biknevicius Audrone R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.755.5
Subject(s) - foraging , retinal , biology , anatomy , morphology (biology) , retina , zoology , ecology , neuroscience , botany
In order to understand the evolution of avian retinal morphology, we collected known data on the number and location of the area centralis and foveae in 165 species of birds. From these data, 10 distinct retinal patterns were found: nasal unifoveate, with either a circular area or band‐shaped area; bifoveate with circular areas or a band‐shaped area; temporal unifoveate with a circular area; no area centralis; afoveate with a circular nasal area; afoveate with a circular temporal area; temporal unifoveate with a band‐shaped area; and afoveate with a band‐shaped area. The retinal patterns were mapped onto a phylogeny, and the ancestral character state for birds was found to be a nasal unifoveate retina with a band‐shaped area. The evolution of the other 9 retinal patterns appears complex, involving retentions, directional changes toward different configurations and reversals. Data was also collected on foraging behavior and locomotor head movements. Their relationships to retinal morphology were analyzed using pairwise comparisons. None of the pairwise comparisons showed significant relationships; however, some trends were apparent both within clades and across the phylogeny. One surprising result was that head‐bobbing behaviors were not limited to birds with a specific retinal morphology, as it occurred in afoveate, unifoveate and bifoveate birds.