Ontogenetic Scaling of the Hindlimb Muscles of the Greater Rhea (Rhea americana)

The greater rhea (Rhea americana) is the largest South American bird. It is a cursorial, flightless species with long powerful legs and reduced forelimbs. The goal of this study was to explore how hindlimb muscles scale with body mass during postnatal growth and to analyze whether the specialized lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anatomia, histologia, embryologia histologia, embryologia, 2015-12, Vol.44 (6), p.452-459
Main Author: Picasso, M. B. J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adults
allometry
Animals
birds
Dissection - veterinary
forelimbs
Hindlimb - anatomy & histology
Hindlimb - physiology
legs
locomotion
Muscle, Skeletal - anatomy & histology
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
muscles
Rhea americana
Rheiformes - anatomy & histology
Running - physiology
South America
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Summary:The greater rhea (Rhea americana) is the largest South American bird. It is a cursorial, flightless species with long powerful legs and reduced forelimbs. The goal of this study was to explore how hindlimb muscles scale with body mass during postnatal growth and to analyze whether the specialized locomotion of this species affects the growth of muscle masses. The mass of 19 muscles and body mass were weighed in 21 specimens ranging from 1‐month‐old individuals to adults. Seventeen muscles scaled with positive allometry with respect to body mass, whereas two muscles scaled isometrically. The predominance of positive allometric growth in hindlimb muscles results in a limb with massive and powerful muscles specialized to support a large body mass and to attain relatively high running speeds. Analysis of muscle mass scaling is a simple and useful way to compare possible differences between locomotor styles, and it is valuable in studies that reconstruct the paleobiology of extinct taxa.
ISSN:0340-2096
1439-0264
DOI:10.1111/ahe.12158