BIRD EYES

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

This may be a little late but here's my observations on dinosaurian 
eyes.

OWLS

These are found in most all birds and vary from cartilagenous to 
completely ossified and bony.  From what I can tell, most birds can 
maneuver their orbs pretty well and I don't doubt that the various 
non-avian dinos could either.  Of course there are exceptions to this 
rule: owls (Strigiformes) being the most popular example (the oilbird, 
_Steatornis_, being the other most popular example.  Those who have seen 
and/or skinned owls can immediately tell that those buggers have huge 
sclerotic rings.  The ring consists of large sclerotic ossicles that 
expand into a cone-shaped structure that is easily the most conspicuous 
feature of the owl skeleton to the lay person, other than the large, 
facultatively zygodactyl, raptorial peds.  Now, as any person should 
know, owls cannot move their eyes one bit, so they evolved a neck that 
is so flexible it can be turned 270 degrees.  I believe some hawks (I 
think the harrier hawk, I forget the genus) so a similiar condition in 
their sclerotic ossicles, though they still can move their eyes.  

(BRIEF) OWL HUNTING

One of the coolest aspects of owls in my opinion is their adaptation to 
hunting.  Their eyes are rotated completely forward and are huge 
(literally like golf balls); their eyesight is tremendous.  Coupling 
good eyesight are the facial disks that pick up sound like radar.  
Couple this with a very strong beak and feet that are probably the 
strongest in the avian world, and their stealthy flight, they are 
probably the best dinosaurian hunters that ever evolved.  

Matt Troutman 
m_troutman@hotmail.com


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