Feeding Mechanism in Fruit-Eating Birds: Toucans and Hornbillsстатья
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Web of Science
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 27 мая 2015 г.
Аннотация:Lingual food transport and swallowing has been largely described in terrestrial
and aquatic neognath birds. Eating whole fruits in Toucan (Ramphastos
toco) and hornbills (Buceros hydrocorax) is based on another
mechanism called ballistic feeding. These birds took and positioned the
food by the tip of the beak, and placed the food at the same place in the
beak before rapidly tilting the head backwards to impose a ballistic
curve to the food. The upper beak was suddenly opened and the food
continued its ballistic curve freely inside the beak. In the toucan, as the
food reached the level of attachment of the beak on the skull, the tip of
the tongue moved upward from its resting position on the lower jaw to
open the pharyngeal cavity by depression of the hyoid apparatus. The
tongue of the hornbill was never visible. The ballistically projected food
entered directly into the pharynx. Our findings show a unique mode of
feeding in birds with the tongue never playing any role for food intraoral
manipulating and transporting. A mechanical hypothesis is suggested
to show the action of the hyobranchium and the long and thin
tongue in toucans. Our data show that toucans and hornbills are unique
in their feeding mechanism without intra-oral transport.