Flamingos' Bones Favor One-Leg Stance

in ultraviolet and infrared images. Study- LIFE & EVOLUTION ing the brilliant light shows at the planet’s poles, the team observed particles falling Flamingos’ bones favor one-leg stance into the planet’s atmosphere, similar to Bird balancing act needs little muscular effort, study suggests what happens on Earth. But, unlike on Earth, beams of electrons shoot out of BY SUSAN MILIUS shifted to preen a feather or joust with a Jupiter’s atmosphere. The finding sug- A question flamingo researchers get neighbor, the instrument tracked wob- gests the gas giant interacts very differ- asked all the time — why the birds stand bles in the foot’s center of pressure, where ently with the solar wind, the team writes. on one leg — may need rethinking. The the bird’s weight was focused. When a Another oddity, described by Bolton’s bigger puzzle may be why flamingos bird tucked its head onto its pillowy back team, is how ammonia wells up from bother standing on two. and shut its eyes, the center of pressure the depths of Jupiter’s atmosphere (see Balance aids built into the birds’ basic made smaller adjustments (within a Page 32). The upwelling resembles a fea- anatomy allow for a one-legged stance radius of 3.2 millimeters on average, com- ture on Earth called a Hadley cell, where that demands little muscular effort, tests pared with 5.1 millimeters when active). warm air at the equator rises and cre- find. This stance is so stable that a bird Museum bones revealed features of ates trade winds, hurricanes and other sways less to keep itself upright when it the skeleton that might enhance stability, weather. Jupiter’s ammonia cycling appears to be dozing than when it’s alert but bones alone didn’t tell the research- looks similar. But because Jupiter lacks with eyes open, two Atlanta neuromech- ers enough. Deceased Caribbean fla- a solid surface, the upwelling probably anists report May 24 in Biology Letters. mingos donated to science gave a better works in a different way. Figuring out “Most of us aren’t aware that we’re view. “The ‘ah-ha!’ moment was when I how the phenomenon occurs on Jupiter moving around all the time,” says Lena said, ‘Wait, let’s look at it in a vertical posi- may help scientists better understand Ting of Emory University, who measures tion,’ ” Ting remembers. All of a sudden, the atmospheres of other planets. postural sway in standing people as well the bird specimen settled naturally into “What we learn about Jupiter will as in animals. Just keeping the human one-legged lollipop alignment. impact our understanding of all giant body vertical demands constant sensing The bird’s distribution of weight planets,” Bolton says. Most planetary and muscular correction for wavering. looked just right for one-footed bal- systems have Jupiter-like planets. By Even standing robots expend “quite a ance. The flamingo’s center of gravity helping reveal how the one in our solar bit of energy,” she says. That could have was close to the inner knee where bones system formed and operates, the new been the case for flamingos, she points started to form the long column to the data could give clues to how other plan- out, since effort isn’t always visible. ground, giving the precarious-looking etary systems evolved as well. s Ting and Young-Hui Chang of the position remarkable stability. The speci- Georgia Institute of Technology tested men’s body wasn’t as stable on two legs, balance in young Chilean flamingos on a the researchers found. GWAS account for only about 5 percent platform attached to a device to measure Reinhold Necker of Ruhr University in of individual differences in intelligence, how much they sway. Keepers at Zoo Bochum, Germany, doesn’t see this study the authors estimate. Those genes are Atlanta hand-rearing the test subjects as evidence that a one-legged stance “accounting for so little of the variance let researchers visit after feeding time saves energy overall. “The authors do not 2017 that they’re not telling us much of any- in hopes of catching youngsters inclined consider the retracted leg,” says Necker, thing,” says differential developmen- toward a nap — on one leg on a machine. who has studied flamingos. Keeping that tal psychologist Wendy Johnson of the As a flamingo standing on one foot leg retracted could take some energy. University of Edinburgh. The new study is a step BIOLOGY LETTERS BIOLOGY Quiescent Still, understanding the genetics of toward understanding intelligence might one day point out ways how flamingos stand on to enhance it for people at both the high one leg but doesn’t explain and low ends of the curve. “If we under- Alert and still why, says comparative stand what goes wrong in the brain, we psychologist Matthew might be able to intervene,” Haier says. Anderson of St. Joseph’s But ethical and technical concerns Alert and moving University in Philadel- exist. Brain biology is incredibly intri- phia. He’s found that cate, so changing one gene might have more flamingos rest one- many unanticipated effects. Scientists 50 mm 10 mm legged when temperatures would need to know everything about the A young flamingo sets one foot on an instrument that tracks drop, so thermoregulation posture. The smallest shifts (red squiggles, right) in the foot’s genetics of intelligence before they could center of pressure, where weight is focused, occur when the might have something to ROB FELT/GEORGIA TECH (PHOTO), Y-H CHANG AND L.H. TING/ Y-H TECH (PHOTO), FELT/GEORGIA ROB change it, Posthuma says. s bird is quiescent. For active birds, shifts are bigger. do with it. s www.sciencenews.org | June 24, 2017 15 .

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