Los estudios sobre murciélagos son muy complejos, amplios y distribuidos a lo largo y ancho del planeta Tierra. Nos llega un trabajo firmado por Amanda Ueti, Paulo Santos Pompeu y Rodrigo Lopes Ferreira y publicado en la revista SUBTERRANEAN BIOLOGY, con un título interesante: "Asymmetry compensation in a small vampire bat population in a cave: a case study in Brazil".
Figure 1.
Graphical representation of the compensation of asymmetry in the constituent structures of the wing and the maintenance of wing area. The height of the wing remains in the various plans through inverse variation in the size of structures 3 with 4 and 4 with 2. At length the maintenance is done by varying inversely in size from 1 to 5. 1 forearm 2 second phalanx of the fifth digit 3 fourth metacarpal of the digit 4 first phalanx of fourth digit, and 5 first phalanx of third digit.
Y decimos interesante porque sólo hay que leer el resumen de este trabajo:
Abstract: Normally, the wings are assumed to be symmetrical, since radical departure from symmetry is known to hinder flight. The objective of the present paper was to investigate the symmetry of the wing structure in a population of common vampire bats, Desmodus rotundus. The bones of both wings were measured, and the area of each wing was calculated. Asymmetry was found, with males having a larger number of asymmetric bone structures than females. Moreover, both directional asymmetry and antisymmetry were identified for the males, whereas for the females only fluctuating asymmetry was found. However, although asymmetry does occur, it is generally compensated for by complementary changes in the structures of the other wing. We believe that by keeping the wing area symmetrical, potential aerodynamic problems may be minimized.
Tenemos que dar la enhorabuena por estas investigaciones tan curiosas e interesantes. Además, este trabajo se encuentra de libre acceso y podéis leerlo y descargarlo en el siguiente enlace:
Imagen extraída del trabajo citado anteriormente.
