Animals can instantly exhibit versatile behaviors in response to their circumstances to
survive in harsh natural environments. For example, many animals chase prey, escape from …

The neck is a critical portion of the avian spine, one that works in tandem with the beak to act
as a surrogate forelimb and allows birds to manipulate their surroundings despite the lack of …

Animals tend to decrease in body size (Bergmann's rule) and elongate appendages (Allen's
rule) in warm climates. However, it is unknown whether these patterns depend on each …

Body size and shape play fundamental roles in organismal function and it is expected that
animals may possess body proportions that are well-suited to their ecological niche …

Bird necks display unparalleled levels of morphological diversity compared to other
vertebrates, yet it is unclear what factors have structured this variation. Using three …

Species richness is strikingly uneven across taxonomic groups at all hierarchical levels, but
the reasons for this heterogeneity are poorly understood. It is well established that …

This paper is devoted to the control and identification of a manipulator with three anti-
parallelogram joints in series, referred to as X-joints. Each X-joint is a tensegrity one-degree …

Streamlining a body is a major adaptation for aquatic animals to move efficiently in the
water. Whereas diving birds are well known to have streamlined bodies, such body shapes …

The head− neck system of birds is a highly complex structure that performs a variety of
demanding and competing tasks. Morphofunctional adaptations to feeding specializations …

Background The origin of birds from non-avian theropod dinosaur ancestors required a
comprehensive restructuring of the body plan to enable the evolution of powered flight. One …