Аннотация:The musculoskeletal apparatus of the shoulder girdle and forelimb of tree shrews, colugos, and bats is described in detail. Special attention is paid to the recognition of peculiarities of the skeleton and joints.
For the basic locomotion patterns of colugos and bats, the models for movements of particular elements of the shoulder girdle are developed. The most important phases of locomotion of these animals are analysed statically.
The key structural characters of the shoulder girdle and forelimbs of colugos and bats, the formation of which provided transition of mammals from terrestrial locomotion to gliding and flapping flight, are recognised. The concept that preadaptations preceding the acquisition of flapping flight could have been associated with two alternating locomotion patterns, gliding and running up thick trunks, both using widely sprawled forelimbs, is introduced for the first time. It is shown that the colugo is an adequate morphofunctional model of an ancestral stage of chiropterans, despite of their phylogenetic remoteness.
The evolutionary morphoecological scenario describing probable process of successive transformation of typical parasagittal limbs of chiropteran ancestors into wings is developed.