In fact, no one had even noted that accipitrids - hawks and eagles - even had such a strangely oversized claw, so this is what prompted us to go and find out." "This was interesting to us, as dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus also have huge claws on their second toe, so we wondered, 'what do these raptors do with this claw?' Well, after searching through the scientific literature, it turns out that no one had tried to answer that question before. "My favorite, the goshawk, had a humungous claw on its second toe," Fowler recalled. When the researchers began their study, they thought investigating a box of raptor feet stored at the museum would prove to be a small project they would complete over spring break, but it took months longer and became much more involved than they expected. This enables them to squeeze victims to death - they specialize on small prey they usually swallow whole. Owls have enlarged talons on each short, robust toe, and each claw is less curved than seen in other birds of prey, part of a suite of adaptations to maximize grip strength. These are adaptations for catching fish, also seen to a lesser extent in fishing raptors such as the bald eagle. The osprey has enlarged, highly curved talons on each toe. In contrast, falcons have only modest talons on each toe, and rely more strongly on the high velocity of their strikes to disable their prey, having evolved a 'tooth' on their beaks to then aid in severing the spinal cords or crushing the heads of their prey. The raptors then often consumes victims while they are still alive, so long as they do not protest too vigorously - the prey eventually succumbs to massive blood loss or organ failure, incurred during dismemberment. When it came to accipitrids, which include eagles and hawks, the researchers found they had giant claws on the first and second toes of each foot, evolved primarily to restrain large struggling prey. "In recent years we have been lucky enough that members of the public have been posting videos of raptor kills on YouTube - just things that they happened upon while out for a walk, or looked out into their garden to see amidst a blizzard of pigeon feathers a sparrowhawk furiously plucking away at its kill," Fowler said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |