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Formation of ‘Polyhedral’ Cell Cavities in Cloudy Media of Bird Feathers*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

L. Auber
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Synopsis

In feathers of a wide variety of unrelated birds non-iridescent blue and related shades are produced by structures. In these, each colour-producing cell of a barb medulla contains a cavity whose outline tends to parallel the cell-boundaries (‘polyhedral’ cavity).

This contrasts with the situation in some other birds with corresponding colour structures where each medullary cell contains a smaller ‘spheroidal’ cavity left by the pycnotized nucleus.

Three different processes of moulding polyhedral cavities are described which modify the thickness of the colour-producing cloudy medium and possibly represent independent evolutionary trends.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 74 , 1974 , pp. 27 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1974

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Footnotes

*

This paper was assisted in publication by a grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

References

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