Why Primates Don’t Fly

Bruce M Rothschild

doi:10.4172/2167-6801.1000e116

Abstract

Copyright: © 2012 Rothschild BM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Primates have an especially long and highly arboreal evolutionary history [1], parallel to that of birds [2]. Birds developed powered flight, whereas primates had less lofty aims. Birds and primates are analogously wired for shoulder muscle functions that initially supported climbing and that were subsequently adapted for aerial activity [3-7]. Novel differences in pectoral girdle anatomy advantageous bird flight through ecotrophism. Ecotrophism is the propensity for life to expand into ecologic niches, with analogous organisms, but not necessarily related to or by the same evolutionary pathway.

Highlights

Primates have an especially long and highly arboreal evolutionary history [1], parallel to that of birds [2]
Ecotrophism is the propensity for life to expand into ecologic niches, with analogous organisms, but not necessarily related to or by the same evolutionary pathway
Vertical clinging and climbing in primates correlates with an increase in vertebral body size caudally; dorsoventrally-shallow cervical and lumbar vertebrae; caudally-oriented spinal process on the axis; cranially-oriented post-diaphragmatic vertebrae with broad mediolateral, but short craniocaudal facets; peculiar pedicular origin of lumbar vertebrae transverse processes; elongated tail; and caudally-shifted center of gravity [8]

Summary

Introduction

Primates have an especially long and highly arboreal evolutionary history [1], parallel to that of birds [2]. Birds and primates are analogously wired for shoulder muscle functions that initially supported climbing and that were subsequently adapted for aerial activity [3,4,5,6,7]. Novel differences in pectoral girdle anatomy advantageous bird flight through ecotrophism. Ecotrophism is the propensity for life to expand into ecologic niches, with analogous organisms, but not necessarily related to or by the same evolutionary pathway.

Results

Conclusion