Morphological basis for the waterproof characteristic of bird plumage

鸟类羽被防水性能的形态学基础(英文)

A surface variable, density of water-feather touching points （Dp） was proposed in this paper to express surface property of water repellency of contour feather. Tests in 29 species using breast contour feathers indicated that Dp was small in tericolous species, medium in wading and diving species, large in swimming species, with only a few exceptions. This implied that birds achieve appropriate Dp by optimizing the microstructure of feather to meet the requirement of water repellency. Therefore, Dp was a morphological marker linking structure and function of feather in studies of adaptive evolution of birds.

提出用水-羽毛接触点密度(Dp)的指标来描述鸟类廓羽表面的防水性能。29种鸟类胸部廓羽的检测表明,除了极少数物种以外,陆禽的Dp较小,涉禽和潜水鸟类的Dp居中,而游禽的Dp较大。这表明鸟类通过羽毛微观结构的变化来使羽毛具有相应水平的防水性能。因此,Dp是一个连接羽毛结构和功能的指标,对鸟类的适应性进化的研究具有重要意义。图3表1参9。