RE: chicken wing-claws

[a23813@ualg.pt]

Tim

> Are you referring to carpal spurs, which are present on the wings of a
> number of birds?  (This feature is what gives the 'spur-winged plover' its
> name.)  Thus, these "wingclaws" of chickens and ducks would not be
> homologous to the claws (unguals) of the hoatzin.

Good question! All I know from the observations I made in my chicken coot is 
that from the egg 'til the pot (and my dog's stomach) that claw passes from a 
facsimile of a foot claw to a conical keratinous "spur" but the structure of 
the allula, in that respect, is too much alike a dinosaurian finger to be a 
spur. In fact I'd like to know what structure do those plover and other birds 
spurs. <notices "_carpal_ spurs"> Ohh! It's an allular claw. Sorry 'bout not 
telling it firstplace. :-(  

> Wing spurs and wing knobs are used in intraspecific combat, AFAIK.  They
> have been known to come off during a contest and remain lodged in the body
> of the other bird.

In this case they're only vestigial.

Renato