10.5061/DRYAD.S6K44
Evangelista, Dennis
University of California, Berkeley
Cam, Sharlene
University of California, Berkeley
Huynh, Tony
University of California, Berkeley
Krivitskiy, Igor
University of California, Berkeley
Dudley, Robert
University of California, Berkeley
Data from: Ontogeny of aerial righting and wing flapping in juvenile birds
Dryad
dataset
2014
Aerodynamics
control
flight origins
wing
manoeuvrability
2014-07-31T18:02:48Z
2014-07-31T18:02:48Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0497
19688 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Mechanisms of aerial righting in juvenile chukar partridge (Alectoris
chukar) were studied from hatching to 14 days-post-hatching (dph).
Asymmetric movements of the wings were used from 1 to 8 dph to effect
progressively more successful righting behaviour via body roll. Following
8 dph, wing motions transitioned to bilaterally symmetric flapping that
yielded aerial righting via nose-down pitch, along with substantial
increases in vertical force production during descent. Ontogenetically,
the use of such wing motions to effect aerial righting precedes both
symmetric flapping and a previously documented behaviour in chukar (i.e.
wing-assisted incline running) hypothesized to be relevant to incipient
flight evolution in birds. These findings highlight the importance of
asymmetric wing activation and controlled aerial manoeuvres during bird
development and are potentially relevant to understanding the origins of
avian flight.
Raw data and R code for plottingData and R code to produce figure 2, which
gives (a) Percent righting (N=26 birds, number of drops as indicated) and
(b) righting mode (N=26 birds, number of successful rightings as
indicated), and (c) vertical force production (N=5 birds, except for N=1
at 14 dph; data represent mean ± 1 s.d.) versus age in Chukar Partridge.
Righting via roll, as accomplished by asymmetric wing and leg movements,
is used prior to 14 dph. Around 9 dph, birds switch to righting via pitch
using symmetric wing motions, and vertical force production increases
concomitantly.data.tar.gz