Studying macroevolutionary patterns of phenotypic variation and their driving forces in large radiations can shed light on how biodiversity is generated across broad spatiotemporal scales. In this study, we integrated song and morphological variation across more than 300 species representing the largest family of songbirds, the tanagers (Thraupidae), to uncover how morphological variables of the vocal tract combine to shape vocal evolution on a macroevolutionary scale. We found that body size correlated with multiple frequency parameters, concurring with past studies that show how body size constrains vocal evolution. Furthermore, bill size predicted multiple frequency and temporal song characters while bill shape was strongly associated with trill rates, suggesting that bill size and shape both constrain distinct elements of avian song independently of body size covariation. Our results demonstrate that the relationship between morphology and song exhibits modular variation when expanded to a macroevolutionary scale. Furthermore, our study emphasizes the need to consider multiple components of the avian vocal tract when exploring the macroevolutionary interplay of morphological traits and acoustic signals.

中文翻译：

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鸟嘴大小、鸟嘴形状和体型在宏观进化尺度上限制鸟鸣进化

研究表型变异的宏观进化模式及其在大辐射中的驱动力可以揭示生物多样性如何在广泛的时空尺度上产生。在这项研究中，我们整合了 300 多个物种的歌曲和形态变异，这些物种代表了最大的鸣禽家族，即唐纳雀科 (Thraupidae)，以揭示声道的形态变量如何结合起来形成宏观进化尺度上的声音进化。我们发现身体大小与多个频率参数相关，这与过去的研究一致，这些研究表明身体大小如何限制声音的进化。此外，钞票大小预测多个频率和时间歌曲字符，而钞票形状与颤音率密切相关，表明喙的大小和形状都约束了鸟类鸣叫的不同元素，而与体型协变无关。我们的研究结果表明，形态和歌曲之间的关系在扩展到宏观进化尺度时表现出模块化变化。此外，我们的研究强调在探索形态特征和声学信号的宏观进化相互作用时需要考虑鸟类声道的多个组成部分。