ENWC418 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Pygostyle, Step One, Keratinocyte
1 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Is it in the feathers: feathers, feathers are the most distinctive feature of birds, extraordinary evolutionary invention, feathers are fundamental to many aspects of bird existence. Insulation, aerodynamics, communication, camouflage: micro-community (bacteria) on feathers, primary functions of feathers, provide protection. Includes flight feathers of the wing, the primaries, secondaries, and the tail feathers: feather vanes are usually asymmetrical, pri(cid:373)ar(cid:455) re(cid:373)iges are separated (cid:271)(cid:455) a s(cid:373)all gap/(cid:271)reak i(cid:374) the (cid:271)ird"s (cid:449)i(cid:374)g feathers. Sensory corpuscles at the base of each filoplume detect fine movements in feather shafts: each flight feather may have 8-12 filoplumes. Warblers as well as the brilliant orangish yellow of the male blackburnian. Warbler: can interact with melanins to produce colors like the olive-green of the female. Iridescent: structural colors are either iridescent or non-iridescent. Iridescent changes occur according to the angle at which light strikes the feather structure: produced via thing layer of keratin on the barbules.
