Pneumaticity of the dorsal foramen and dorsal sulcus of the sternum in Austalasian Passeriformes

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

British Ornithologists' Club

Faculty

Faculty of Computing, Health and Science

School

School of Natural Sciences

RAS ID

436

Comments

Fulton, G. R., & Boles, W. E. (2002). Pneumaticity of the dorsal foramen and dorsal sulcus of the sternum in Austalasian Passeriformes. British Ornithologists' Club, 122. 304-311. Available here

Abstract

The Passeriformes comprise almost 60% on the 9,000-10,000 recent species of birds (Bock & Ferrand 1980, Sibley & Monroe 1990). Songbirds are more widely distributed than any other avian order but aspects of their intra-ordinal classification remains unsettled. Avian systematic have been revitalized in recent years with the increased use of molecular and biochemical techniques (e.g. Christidis & Schodde 1991. Sibley & Ahlquist 1985. 1990). In particular, the classification of the Passeriformes has undergone substantial reorganization (e.g. Sibley & Ahlquist 1985. 1990, Helm-Bychowski & Cracraft 1993; Barker et al. 2002; Ericson et al. 2002). Members of the Passeriformes share a strikingly similar osteological morphology and the identification of subordinal taxa is purportedly extremely difficult, if not impossible, because of this similarity (Olson 1985). Few characters of the postcranial skeleton have been studied in any depth: the best known is the pneumotricipital fossa of the humerus (Bock 1962). Here, an osteological character of the sternum is surveyed and the distribution of its character states examined in light of proposed relationships within the Australasian Passeriformes

Access Rights

free_to_read

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS