• DOI:10.1086/285697
Corpus ID: 86511951

Energy Conservation and the Evolution of Flightlessness in Birds

@article{McNab1994EnergyCA,
  title={Energy Conservation and the Evolution of Flightlessness in Birds},
  author={B. McNab},
  journal={The American Naturalist},
  year={1994},
  volume={144},
  pages={628 - 642}
}

B. McNab

Published 1994

Biology

The American Naturalist

I examine the hypothesis that energy conservation contributes to the evolution of a flightless condition in birds by comparing the factors that correlate with basal rate of metabolism in kiwis and flighted and flightless rails and ducks. Flightless rails have low basal rates, the level of which decreases with pectoral muscle mass. Kiwis also have low basal rates and small pectoral masses. The small pectoral masses found in flightless grebes, the flightless cormorant, and the flightless parrot… CONTINUE READING

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