Ecology and caudal skeletal morphology in birds: the convergent evolution of pygostyle shape in underwater foraging taxa.

Birds exhibit a specialized tail that serves as an integral part of the flight apparatus, supplementing the role of the wings in facilitating high performance aerial locomotion. The evolution of this function for the tail contributed to the diversification of birds by allowing them to utilize a wide...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ryan N Felice, Patrick M O'Connor
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3935938?pdf=render