scholarly journals Evolution of avian flight: muscles and constraints on performance

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1704) ◽  
pp. 20150383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bret W. Tobalske
Keyword(s):  
Muscle Power ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Avian Flight ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Specific Muscle ◽  
Flight Muscles ◽  
New Research ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Wing Stroke

Competing hypotheses about evolutionary origins of flight are the ‘fundamental wing-stroke’ and ‘directed aerial descent’ hypotheses. Support for the fundamental wing-stroke hypothesis is that extant birds use flapping of their wings to climb even before they are able to fly; there are no reported examples of incrementally increasing use of wing movements in gliding transitioning to flapping. An open question is whether locomotor styles must evolve initially for efficiency or if they might instead arrive due to efficacy. The proximal muscles of the avian wing output work and power for flight, and new research is exploring functions of the distal muscles in relation to dynamic changes in wing shape. It will be useful to test the relative contributions of the muscles of the forearm compared with inertial and aerodynamic loading of the wing upon dynamic morphing. Body size has dramatic effects upon flight performance. New research has revealed that mass-specific muscle power declines with increasing body mass among species. This explains the constraints associated with being large. Hummingbirds are the only species that can sustain hovering. Their ability to generate force, work and power appears to be limited by time for activation and deactivation within their wingbeats of high frequency. Most small birds use flap-bounding flight, and this flight style may offer an energetic advantage over continuous flapping during fast flight or during flight into a headwind. The use of flap-bounding during slow flight remains enigmatic. Flap-bounding birds do not appear to be constrained to use their primary flight muscles in a fixed manner. To improve understanding of the functional significance of flap-bounding, the energetic costs and the relative use of alternative styles by a given species in nature merit study. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.

Climbing Performance of Harris' Hawks (Parabuteo Unicinctus) with Added Load: Implications for Muscle Mechanics and for Radiotracking

1989 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. PENNYCUICK ◽  
M. R. FULLER ◽  
LYNNE McALLISTER
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Power Output ◽  
Muscle Power ◽  
Muscle Mechanics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Power Product ◽  
Horizontal Flight ◽  
Flight Muscles ◽  
Food Load ◽  
Parabuteo Unicinctus

Two Harris' hawks were trained to fly along horizontal and climbing flight paths, while carrying loads of various masses, to provide data for estimating available muscle power during short flights. The body mass of both hawks was about 920 g, and they were able to carry loads up to 630 g in horizontal flight. The rate of climb decreased with increasing all-up mass, as also did the climbing power (product of weight and rate of climb). Various assumptions about the aerodynamic power in low-speed climbs led to estimates of the maximum power output of the flight muscles ranging from 41 to 46 W. This, in turn, would imply a stress during shortening of around 210 kPa. The effects of a radio package on a bird that is raising young should be considered in relation to the food load that the forager can normally carry, rather than in relation to its body mass.

scholarly journals Directional Change in a Flying Beetle

1971 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER J. BURTON
Keyword(s):  
Directional Change ◽  
Flight Muscles ◽  
Wing Stroke

1. Stroboscopic photographs of tethered rhinoceros beetles executing yawing rotations show that yaw is achieved chiefly by a unilateral increase in amplitude of the wing stroke. 2. This change in amplitude is brought about by an increase in the frequency of the nervous input to all the fibrillar flight muscles of the appropriate side.

Effects of Specific Muscle Power Increasing upon Patients with Metatarsal Alterations: An Objective Analysis

1985 ◽  
pp. 327-332
Author(s):  
L. Divieti ◽  
G. C. Santambrogio ◽  
W. Gasparoli ◽  
A. Romano’ ◽  
M. Mancarella
Keyword(s):  
Muscle Power ◽  
Objective Analysis ◽  
Specific Muscle

scholarly journals Muscle function in avian flight: achieving power and control

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1570) ◽  
pp. 1496-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew A. Biewener
Keyword(s):  
Energy Savings ◽  
Isometric Force ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Fibre Length ◽  
Elbow Flexion ◽  
Flapping Flight ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Flight Muscles ◽  
Wing Stroke

Flapping flight places strenuous requirements on the physiological performance of an animal. Bird flight muscles, particularly at smaller body sizes, generally contract at high frequencies and do substantial work in order to produce the aerodynamic power needed to support the animal's weight in the air and to overcome drag. This is in contrast to terrestrial locomotion, which offers mechanisms for minimizing energy losses associated with body movement combined with elastic energy savings to reduce the skeletal muscles' work requirements. Muscles also produce substantial power during swimming, but this is mainly to overcome body drag rather than to support the animal's weight. Here, I review the function and architecture of key flight muscles related to how these muscles contribute to producing the power required for flapping flight, how the muscles are recruited to control wing motion and how they are used in manoeuvring. An emergent property of the primary flight muscles, consistent with their need to produce considerable work by moving the wings through large excursions during each wing stroke, is that the pectoralis and supracoracoideus muscles shorten over a large fraction of their resting fibre length (33–42%). Both muscles are activated while being lengthened or undergoing nearly isometric force development, enhancing the work they perform during subsequent shortening. Two smaller muscles, the triceps and biceps, operate over a smaller range of contractile strains (12–23%), reflecting their role in controlling wing shape through elbow flexion and extension. Remarkably, pigeons adjust their wing stroke plane mainly via changes in whole-body pitch during take-off and landing, relative to level flight, allowing their wing muscles to operate with little change in activation timing, strain magnitude and pattern.

scholarly journals Time-varying span efficiency through the wingbeat of desert locusts

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (71) ◽  
pp. 1177-1186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Henningsson ◽  
Richard J. Bomphrey
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Near Wake ◽  
Image Velocimetry ◽  
Lifting Capacity ◽  
Measured Flow ◽  
Wing Stroke ◽  
Stroke Cycle

The flight performance of animals depends greatly on the efficacy with which they generate aerodynamic forces. Accordingly, maximum range, load-lifting capacity and peak accelerations during manoeuvres are all constrained by the efficiency of momentum transfer to the wake. Here, we use high-speed particle image velocimetry (1 kHz) to record flow velocities in the near wake of desert locusts ( Schistocerca gregaria , Forskål). We use the measured flow fields to calculate time-varying span efficiency throughout the wing stroke cycle. The locusts are found to operate at a maximum span efficiency of 79 per cent, typically at a plateau of about 60 per cent for the majority of the downstroke, but at lower values during the upstroke. Moreover, the calculated span efficiencies are highest when the largest lift forces are being generated (90% of the total lift is generated during the plateau of span efficiency) suggesting that the combination of wing kinematics and morphology in locust flight perform most efficiently when doing the most work.

scholarly journals Oxygen Dependence of Flight Performance in Ageing Drosophila melanogaster

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 327
Author(s):  
Valeriya Privalova ◽  
Ewa Szlachcic ◽  
Łukasz Sobczyk ◽  
Natalia Szabla ◽  
Marcin Czarnoleski
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Insect Flight ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Low Oxygen ◽  
Human Ageing ◽  
Flight Capacity ◽  
Oxygen Conditions ◽  
Flight Muscles ◽  
High Elevations ◽  
Oxygen Transport System

Similar to humans, insects lose their physical and physiological capacities with age, which makes them a convenient study system for human ageing. Although insects have an efficient oxygen-transport system, we know little about how their flight capacity changes with age and environmental oxygen conditions. We measured two types of locomotor performance in ageing Drosophila melanogaster flies: the frequency of wing beats and the capacity to climb vertical surfaces. Flight performance was measured under normoxia and hypoxia. As anticipated, ageing flies showed systematic deterioration of climbing performance, and low oxygen impeded flight performance. Against predictions, flight performance did not deteriorate with age, and younger and older flies showed similar levels of tolerance to low oxygen during flight. We suggest that among different insect locomotory activities, flight performance deteriorates slowly with age, which is surprising, given that insect flight is one of the most energy-demanding activities in animals. Apparently, the superior capacity of insects to rapidly deliver oxygen to flight muscles remains little altered by ageing, but we showed that insects can become oxygen limited in habitats with a poor oxygen supply (e.g., those at high elevations) during highly oxygen-demanding activities such as flight.

scholarly journals Effects of experimental manipulation of hematocrit on avian flight performance in high- and low-altitude conditions

2018 ◽  
Vol 221 (22) ◽  
pp. jeb191056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang Nian Yap ◽  
Morag F. Dick ◽  
Christopher G. Guglielmo ◽  
Tony D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Avian Flight ◽  
Low Altitude

Studies of the Innervation and Electrical Activity of Flight Muscles in the Locust, Schistocerca Gregaria

1970 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. KUTSCH ◽  
P. N. R. USHERWOOD
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Activity ◽  
Intracellular Recording ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Motor Units ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Flight Muscles ◽  
Recording Techniques

1. Four flight muscles, one depressor (M 99) and three elevators (M 90, M 91 and M 120) of the wings of the locust Schistocerca gregaria have been investigated using extracellular and intracellular recording techniques. The innervation and anatomy of these muscles have also been studied histologically. 2. Every fibre in each of these muscles is innervated by ‘fast’ motoneurones. M 99 contains two anatomically distinct ‘fast’ motor units. M 90 contains three ‘fast’ motor units. 3. M 91 and M 120 are innervated by at least one ‘slow’ excitatory and one inhibitory neurone as well as by a ‘fast’ excitatory neurone. Sometimes the inhibitory responses recorded from fibres of these muscles appeared as depolarizing IPSPs. 4. The roles of these muscles in the behaviour of the locust, especially during flight performance, are discussed.

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