报告人：

报告人：Benton Walters

报告题目：Evaluating the Functional Convergence of Vertebrate Wing Shapes Using Theoretical Morphospace 

合作导师： 胡晗

评审委员会主任： 周忠和

委员（按姓氏拼音顺序）：李志恒，吴飞翔，徐星，朱幼安

时间：2026年9月9日 上午10:00

地点：9楼会议室

内容简介：

Despite the independent origination of wing in birds, bats and pterosaurs and the taxonomic diversity of these groups, shape in vertebrate wings appears conserved in a classic example of convergent evolution. Conservation in shape, coupled with a clear mechanical function; flight, make wings an ideal dataset for testing the longstanding adaptationist assertion that animal form is the predictable endpoint of optimization for functional selection. Using theoretical morphospace, I analyzed the functional performance of wing shape both between the main lineages of volant vertebrates and for multiple flight styles. This method permits identification of optimal morphologies in a global environment of shape variation, regardless of whether that shape has evolved in nature, thus avoiding the pitfalls and cyclical thinking that plague optimality analysis. I assembled tree-spanning datasets of empirical wing morphology and compared these shapes with the optimal theoretical planforms for multiple functional styles of flight.

Across birds, functional optimization is highly variable. With most taxa evolving wing shapes poorly suited for their flight style. The notable exception is intensive, acrobatic flight, which I find to strongly constrain wing shape to the point of optimality. This result was also found in bats, where functional constraint has driven extant insect hawking bats to evolve optimal wings for their flight style. By adding fossil bat wing shapes, I identify a rapid trajectory of adaptation towards shape optimality that occurred early in bat evolution. Using these same methods I evaluated the functional performance of pterosaur reconstructions, determining that modern scientific depictions of these animals likely do not accurately represent their diversity in life. Shared convergence on an optimal morphology for acrobatic flight in birds and bats demonstrates that, for some flight styles, convergent form is predicted by functional selection, but for most flying vertebrates, a more nuanced, pluralist approach to understanding shape is required. By extending this method it will be possible to examine the functional trajectory of wing shape in early birds and determine when in avian evolution flight specialization evolved. This will require the development of a testable, repeatable means of reconstructing wing shape from exceptionally preserved fossils, like those from the Cretaceous of China.

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