Ornithere: Difference between revisions
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"Ornithere" (and the taxon name ''Ornitheria'') means bird-beast and stems from the bird-like appearance of the group. It is common for the names of sauceback taxa to end in ''-therium''.
The name "jewel-eyed sauceback" stems from one of their unique
==Anatomy==
Ornitheres have most of the same anatomy of other modern saucebacks, but there are many important differences.
In basal ornitheres
===Feathers===
Apart from their eyes, a striking feature of many ornitheres species is their bird-like feathers. These range from the downy plumes present in other saucebacks to complex, aerodynamic flight feathers unique to them. Many ornitheres have flight feathers, typically located on the legs (remiges) and tail (rectrices), forming "leg-wings" and a tail fan, respectively. Biats also have flight feathers attached to their ears (canard feathers). Similar to [[Wikipedia:Bird|birds]], these flight feathers are used for various forms of aerial locomotion, including fluttering, gliding, and flight.
In biats, feathers are organized into tracts, or pterylae, rather than covering the whole body. The flight feather tracts are the caudal (tail fan), left and right alar (wings), left and right aural (ears), and left and right pulmonary (upper tail); some of these are absent in more derived species. The body feathers are the dorsal tract (a U shape on the back that meets in front of the sauce plate), ventral tract (a U shape on the underbelly that meets at the gastralium), femoral tract (wing coverts; not to be confused with a
===Legs and Hips===
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Ornitheres and their close relatives have limited up-down flexibility in their mandibles, unlike other saucebacks, as the muscles used to pivot the jaws up and down in other groups instead pull them together for a powerful bite. This gives strong-jawed species a superficially heart-shaped head, due to the powerful muscles bulging outwards.
The oral
Ornitheres lack the lips that are present in other saucebacks, as their jaws, so much larger than the pincer-like jaws of more basal saucebacks, completely took over the role of closing the mouth; the lips only got in the way. This comes at a cost; some species cannot close their jaws fully because of secondary adaptations, so their mouths are exposed to open air and more prone to water loss.
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==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Common Names]]
[[Category:Group Overviews]]
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