A violin cry

• Autores: Rowan Hooper
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2976, 2014, págs. 22-23
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Here, Dieter Damschen's photograph of a crane is featured taken Lake Ganzen in Germany. The bird has an extraordinary adaptation. Its windpipe, or trachea, is three or more times as long as would be expected for a bird of this size--even one with a long neck. But different species of cranes have different amounts of coiling, and yet they can all make extremely loud calls. The coils vibrate against the sternum in a similar way to the bridge on a stringed instrument, and the vibrations are amplified by the lungs. A better analogy, therefore, is a violin, not a trumpet-- which may or may not be something to ponder if one should hear the cry of these distinctive birds.