Testing the form-function paradigm: body shape correlates with kinematics but not energetics in selectively-bred birds

Abstract

A central concept of evolutionary biology, supported by broad scale allometric analyses, asserts that changing morphology should induce downstream changes in locomotor kinematics and energetics, and by inference selective fitness. However, if these mechanistic relationships exist at local intraspecific scales, where they could provide substrate for fundamental microevolutionary processes, is unknown. Here, analyses of selectively-bred duck breeds demonstrate that distinct body shapes incur kinematic shifts during walking, but these do not translate into differences in energetics. A combination of modular relationships between anatomical regions, and a trade-off between limb flexion and trunk pitching, are shown to homogenise potential functional differences between the breeds, accounting for this discrepancy between form and function. This complex interplay between morphology, motion and physiology indicates that understanding evolutionary links between the avian body plan and locomotor diversity requires studying locomotion as an integrated whole and not key anatomical innovations in isolation.