}

Getting to know the flamenco peak

2006/11/02 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

In the flamenco peak some fabrics have been found that until now they did not know. These tissues, located at the bottom and side of the tongue, are vertical, that is, they inflate and harden once full of blood.

The discovery was made by researchers from the University of Ohio, who tried to better know the skull of the flamingos to compare it with other birds. To see the inside of the flamenco skull, a contrast was used in the skull of a pink flamenco found dead: a barium preparation was introduced in the blood vessels (to separate arteries and veins, a higher concentration preparation was introduced in the veins) and images of the cranial blood vessels were obtained when the barium was highlighted by tomography.

For in those images, some tissues were seen that they had not seen until then. The researchers believe that these tissues are related to the special diet of flamenco. In fact, flamenco, like other birds, feeds on water filtration (filtering water in the beak and separating plankton and diatoms), but, unlike other birds, it decays mentally.

Photo: WitmerLab, University of Ohio.