Monatsarchive: Februar 2016

At the birdfeeder: Grosbeaks and bullfinches

At the end of last year I made several bird feeders, among them two bigger wooden models for seeds. It took some time until I finally managed to instal one of them in the garden, but the birds quickly learnt … Weiterlesen

Veröffentlicht unter Vögel | Verschlagwortet mit | Schreib einen Kommentar

The remarkably big caudal keels of swordfish

That´s just another of those posts which focus on lesser known anatomical oddities in otherwise better known animals. This time it´s about one of the most iconic teleost fish, the grand swordfish Xiphias gladius. But I won´t cover its most … Weiterlesen

Veröffentlicht unter Fische, Megafische | Schreib einen Kommentar

The oral oddities of ruminants

In the last post I wrote about the strange anatomical structures in the beaks of spoonbills. This time I will cover again oral oddities, but in a fully different class of animals. Ruminants have always been among the most important … Weiterlesen

Veröffentlicht unter Anatomie, Säugetiere | 2 Kommentare

Birds with weird beaks part III: Why spoonbills are even stranger than you think

Spoonbills (Plataleinae) have obviously weird beaks. The overall elongated shape with the flat and proximally widened end is already a quite strong modification of the „normal“ bird beak. But you have to take a really close look at the beak, … Weiterlesen

Veröffentlicht unter Anatomie, Vögel | Schreib einen Kommentar