Although birds’ thin legs may seem like a striking feature at first glance, this is actually one of the reasons for this optical illusion. “How?” We hear you say, but this reason is just the beginning.

Beneath their striking appearance lies an interesting story dating back to the dinosaurs. evolutionary story lies. Without further ado, let’s explain.

The first reason why birds’ legs are so thin is a kind of optical illusion.

Julia Clarke, a paleontologist who studies bird evolution at the University of Texas, says the first reason why birds’ legs seem strangely thin is that their bodies the rest is largely covered with feathers and that these feathers make birds appear larger than normal.

Their small bodies hidden under their feathers, their legs are quite long. small and naked That’s what it makes it seem. Birds with feathers down to the toes, such as owls and some chickens, have thicker legs.

This optical illusion is not the only reason.

There are indeed differences between the thinness of the legs of birds and the thinness of the legs of other animals. Birds are descendants of bipedal dinosaurs that varied in size. some of these Some were as small as sparrows and some were as big as T-Rex.

While most mammals that can walk on two legs, such as bears, chimpanzees and humans, stand on their heels, dinosaurs stand on their heels. on the toes and the front of the foot He was walking. The rest of the foot bones were kept above the ground.

Today’s birds retained some of these features and developed others as they took to the skies. As the ancestors of birds began to grow more and more wings, the development of stronger wing muscles in birds became possible. It shifted their center of gravity to the front of the body. To keep the balance their bodies became smaller, her thighs shifted and connected to the body, becoming part of the hip.

Not all of them have the same skinny legs.

like an ostrich does not fly and spends a lot of time on the ground Birds’ legs are relatively large and muscular, so they can carry more weight. “Light songbirds” do not need muscular legs because they walk less.

In short, birds’ feet became that way because of their evolutionary history. For most birds (especially flying ones) Its limbs are supposed to be muscular, not its legs but its wings. When their hairy bodies come into play, it’s normal for them to look so skinny!

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