Albatross are among the world's largest flying birds, with wingspans that can stretch beyond a remarkable three meters. These majestic animals harness ocean winds to travel thousands of kilometers in search of food while barely flapping their wings.
, embarking on their first journey, can spend up to five years at sea without ever touching land.
From a single common ancestor, Darwin's finches diversified. Some birds have thick beaks for feeding on seeds and nuts, while others have pointed beaks for eating insects. This variation allows species to specialize, helping them to share available food sources and limit competition. By studying the shape of albatross beaks in three dimensions , our new research shows that, just like Darwin's finches, albatross beaks vary in size and shape to adapt to different diets.Wildlife research is undergoing a revolution as scientists use new 3D scanning and modeling techniques to compare the anatomy of animals. This gives fresh insights into their ecology and evolution., we made 3D digital models of beaks for 61 birds from 12 different albatross species.
Albatross have compound beaks made of multiple pieces of keratin. These vary in size and shape between the different species. Credit: Josh Tyler,Beaks also varied between species that eat either invertebrate prey, fish, or a mixture of both. Even in species that have similarly shaped beaks and diets, variations in beak size enable them to focus on prey of different sizes within the same category, such as small versus large fish.
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