Whether Birds Flap, Glide, or Soar Determines Wing Range of Motion (But Not Wing Shape) (5 of 9) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Whether Birds Flap, Glide, or Soar Determines Wing Range of Motion (But Not Wing Shape) (5 of 9)

Caption

Prepared, spread wings from (top to bottom) a gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolis), American kestrel (Falco sparverius), belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon), red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), red-crested turaco (Tauraco erythrolophus), and bar-headed goose (Anser indicus). All wings from the Cowan Tetrapod Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver, BC Canada. Markers indicate the locations of joints or other features of the skeleton. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Oct. 23rd, 2019, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by V.B. Baliga at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and colleagues was titled, "Range of motion in the avian wing is strongly associated with flight behavior and body mass."

Credit

Vikram B. Baliga

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