The
barbules and the alignment of melanosomes within them, Carney said, are identical to those found in modern birds.
Ground in a pestle, the kingfisher's feathers are dark brown, similar to ravens; contour feathers have a tiny turquoise spot at the tip and colourless
barbules to trick the light and scatter the blue-green wavelengths.
Flight and contour feathers have tiny hooks called
barbules that hold the feather together.
Hoskin was taking umbrage at an article in Consumer Reports magazine in 1992 that charged that half the cans of tuna it tested contained "insect parts," "hairs," "fish scales," and "feather
barbules.
The parotia feather is unique in that each of the tiny
barbules that are linked to make the feather blade is shaped so that it has two outer surfaces whose structure means that it reflects blue light in two different directions, while the interior of the feather contains a third mirror, made of multiple layers of keratin and melanin, which reflects yellow light between the two blue beams," said Osorio.
1I), L-shaped phallotheca with a thumb-like projection, U-shaped basal part of vesica, well developed secondary gonopore with some associated
barbules, single elongate apical spine of vesica (Fig.
Barbules, smaller fibers that branch from the barbs, can sport small hooklets that lock onto adjacent barbs or
barbules.
Microscope slides were made from downy feather
barbules in gut samples following Dove et al.
In succeeding generations of animals, these barbs evolved smaller structures, called
barbules and barbicels, that hook neighboring barbs together.
The extent of both water repellency and resistance to water penetration can be ascertained by measuring the diameters of the barbs and
barbules and their respective separations, which have been quantified for ~150 aquatic and terrestrial species of 45 families (Rijke 1970, Elowson 1984).
The main structural feather adaptations of owls are: (1) elongated barbs on the leading edge at the outer primaries, (2) a trailing edge on the flight feathers, and (3) modified distal
barbules on the dorsal surface of feathers (del Hoyo et al.
There was no visible damage to the rachis, barbs or
barbules of our uninoculated control feathers from exposure to full spectrum sunlight (280-750 nm).
