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Feathers Attached to the Short Tail, Forms the flight Mechanism, and by Having a Very High Metabolic Rate

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Feathers Attached to the Short Tail, Forms the flight Mechanism, and by Having a Very High Metabolic Rate AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education Page 1 of 11 www.accessscience.com Aves Contributed by: Walter J. Bock Publication year: 2014 The class of animals consisting of the birds. Modern birds ( Fig. 1 ) are characterized by being feathered, warm-blooded (homeothermic), and bipedal (two-legged), with the forelimb modified into a wing which, together with the tail feathers attached to the short tail, forms the flight mechanism, and by having a very high metabolic rate. Such a characterization, however, as with any group of vertebrates, holds for the living forms and most fossil members of this class, but is blurred by the early fossil record, which contains species with characteristics closer to those of the reptilian ancestors of birds. The feathers of birds are lightweight modifications of the outer skin possessing remarkable aerodynamic qualities. They serve not only as surfaces to generate lift and thrust, and as a streamlined outer surface of the body, but also as insulation to maintain high body temperatures. In addition, birds have lightweight, hollow bones; a well-developed air-sac system and flow-through lungs; a wishbone or furcula (fused clavicles); and a hand reduced to three digits (comparable to digits 2, 3, and 4 of the human hand). Birds have most likely evolved from an ancestor within the large group of ancient diapsid reptiles known as archosaurs (including alligators, snakes and lizards, and dinosaurs, among others). However, debate still centers on whether birds are derived from a basal archosaurian stock or arose later directly from the later and more derived theropod dinosaurs (carnivores such as Allosaurus and Velociraptor ). The latter theory gained support by the discovery of fossils from the end of the Mesozoic Era (“Age of Reptiles”) that some researchers reported to be feathered dinosaurs; however, other researchers think they were birds that had already became secondarily flightless and represent “Mesozoic kiwis.” Feathers Feathers are unique to birds. These lightweight structures made of keratin are the most complex appendages produced by the skin of any vertebrate. The vanes of a feather are supported by a central shaft, or rachis, which is the structural backbone. They are composed of specialized filaments called barbs, which possess secondary, tiny filaments called barbules, or barbs. The barbs are bound together in “Velcro” fashion by small hooklets, or hamuli, located on the barbs. Body-contour feathers of many species have an associated smaller secondary shaft—an aftershaft—which results from the developmental process of the feather and which adds to the insulating property of the plumage. Feathers grow from specialized dermal follicles and are generally renewed once a year during the postbreeding molt. Body feathers of some birds are molted twice a year; the large wing feathers of some raptors are not replaced every year. In addition to the typical vaned form, feathers come in many other forms, such as down, power down, bristles, and filoplumes. However, the tuft of epidermal outgrowths, the beard present on the breast of male turkeys, are not feathers. AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education Page 2 of 11 www.accessscience.com ImageFig. 1 ( aof ) Apodiformes:1 Calypte anna , Anna’s hummingbird ( photo by Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles , copyright © California Academy of Sciences ), ( b ) Piciformes: Red-headed woodpecker ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus ) in Desoto National Wildlife Refuge, Iowa ( p hoto by Dave Menke ∕ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ), ( c ) Strigiformes: Northern spotted owl ( photo by John and Karen Hollingsworth ∕ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ), ( d ) Falconiformes: Osprey ( Pandion haliaetus ) [ p hoto by Glenn and Martha Vargas , copyright © California Academy of Sciences ], ( e ) Phoenicapteriformes: Phoenicopterus ruber , greater flamingo ( photo by Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles , copyright © California Academy of Sciences ), ( f ) Charadriiformes: Phalaropus fulicaria , the red phalarope ( p hoto by Gerald and Buff Corsi , copyright © California Academy of Sciences ), ( g ) Pelecaniformes: Pelecanus erythrorhynchos , American white pelican ( p hoto by Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles , copyright © California Academy of Sciences ) Body feathers in most birds are arranged in definite feather tracts, leaving large parts of the skin free of feathers. Muscles attaching to the base of the feather, the calamus, move the feathers, thereby allowing the bird, for example, to fluff the body feathers into a loose ball around its entire body for maximum insulation or to move courtship plumes in precise and complicated ways. The wing feathers, the remiges, produce lift and forward thrust in flight. They are asymmetric, with a smaller outer vane and a larger inner vane, which are the building blocks of slotted wings. The bird wing comprises two main sets of flight feathers, the outer primary feathers which are attached to the hand, and the inner secondary feathers which are attached to the ulna. The several feathers attached to the moveable second finger constitute the ulna which can form a slot to prevent stalling at low speeds, similar to those in airplane wings. Contour feathers provide smooth aerodynamic surfaces of the body, resulting in laminar airflow during flight. Typically, the body contour feathers have symmetrical vanes. Most of the vane is stiff and tightly bound, like flight feathers, and is known as the pennaceous portion. However, the part of the vane near the base, known as the plumaceous portion, lacks hooklets and is loosely bound. This basal portion can by fluffed up to trap body AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education Page 3 of 11 www.accessscience.com heat next to the skin. In warm conditions the body feathers can be flattened to allow heat to escape. Thus, feathers form an insulating plumage to cover the surface of the avian body. Tail feathers (rectrices) resemble the flight feathers of the wing and provide lift in flight. The tail feathers of modern birds are attached to a vertically flattened bone known as the pygostyle, formed by a number of fused caudal vertebrae. The pygostyle (sometimes called the plowshare bone) also supports the uropygial or oil gland that provides a rich oil used to preen the feathers and to maintain their moistness and flexibility. Not all feathers have stiff vanes. Typically, newly hatched birds are covered by a coat of plush down feathers, which are replaced by the adult contour feathers. Down feathers lack a central shaft but have long, loosely connected barbules that provide an insulating layer next to the skin. In addition to flight and insulation, feathers can serve other functions, ranging from providing color patterns and structural forms serving for species recognition and courtship displays (including sound production by wing or tail feathers) to cryptic color patterns for protection (as is the case with the woodcock, which has feathers that blend with the dead leaves of the forest floor). Another unusual adaptation of feathers is seen in the sand grouse, a desert bird of Africa and Asia that makes long flights to a water hole to drink. The male sand grouse also obtains water for the young, storing it in his specialized flattened and coiled barbules on the contour feathers of the belly. This feature allows the male to hold water in flight and transport it to the nest, which may be some 20 mi (30 km) away. The young drink by squeezing the wet feathers in their bills. See also: FEATHER . Beak The original toothed jaws of ancestral birds have evolved into the light toothless beak in which the upper and lower jaws are covered by a horny rhamphotheca, and which may vary in texture from the strong beaks of predatory raptors and seed-eating parrots and finches to relatively soft beaks of shorebirds and ducks. Beaks have a great variety of adaptive forms, including the flesh-tearing hooked beaks of hawks and eagles, the filter-feeding straining beaks of flamingos and ducks, the fish-trapping beaks of pelicans, the climbing and nut-cracking beaks of parrots, the hammering beaks of woodpeckers, and the seed-eating beaks of finches. As in most vertebrates (many fish and reptiles), in addition to the usual moveable lower jaw, the upper jaw of all birds is kinetic, that is, moveable with respect to the brain case, which enables many important functional properties of the avian feeding apparatus in contrast to the akinetic jaw apparatus of mammals. The structure of the tongue also varies greatly depending on the diet of the species. Birds have developed a muscular gizzard (also found in their relatives, crocodiles and dinosaurs) for grinding and processing food into small pieces. The grinding is often assisted by the addition of ingested gizzard stones. The ancient giant moas of New Zealand are preserved with masses of stones in the stomach region, and are known to have subsisted on a diet of leaves. AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education Page 4 of 11 www.accessscience.com Wing Birds are characterized as flying vertebrates with the forelimb modified as a wing with strong flight feathers. They also possess a large, strong pectoral girdle and bony sternum for the attachment of the large flight muscles and for the transfer of the body weight to the wings when the bird is flying. Considerable variation exists in the morphology of the wing (size and shape of the aerodynamic surface formed by the flight feathers) and of the entire muscle-bone system of the pectoral girdle and limb. But it is a mistake to conclude that all activities of birds are associated with flight; indeed for most birds, flight occupies a minor part of their daily activities. The important biological roles of flight in most birds are associated with quick escape from predators, reaching secure nesting places, larger separation of the nesting and foraging sites, and long-distance migration. Yet a few birds (such as swifts and terns) are able to spend many days or even weeks in the air, apparently being able to sleep during flight.
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