One of the most diverse characteristics of birds is the bill. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.įunding: Funding for this study was provided in part by an NSERC Discovery Grant (372237) and Accelerator Supplement (380284-2009) to ANI and in part through a Tertiary Education Commission New Zealand grant to SJC. Received: JAccepted: SeptemPublished: November 14, 2013Ĭopyright: © 2013 Cunningham et al. Coleman, Claremont Colleges, United States of America (2013) The Anatomy of the bill Tip of Kiwi and Associated Somatosensory Regions of the Brain: Comparisons with Shorebirds. We suggest that similarities between kiwi and scolopacid bill-tip organs and associated somatosensory brain regions are likely a result of similar ecological selective pressures, with inter-specific variations reflecting finer-scale niche differentiation.Ĭitation: Cunningham SJ, Corfield JR, Iwaniuk AN, Castro I, Alley MR, Birkhead TR, et al. ![]() Hypertrophy of the principal sensory trigeminal nucleus in kiwi, Scolopacidae, and other tactile specialists appears to have co-evolved alongside bill-tip specializations, whereas hypertrophy of nucleus basorostralis may be influenced to a greater extent by other sensory inputs. Hypertrophy of the nucleus basorostralis, however, occurred only in waterfowl, kiwi, three of the scolopacid species examined and a species of oystercatcher (Charadriiformes: Haematopodidae). Kiwi, scolopacid shorebirds, waterfowl and parrots all shared hypertrophy or near-hypertrophy of the principal sensory trigeminal nucleus. We show that the bill-tip organ structure was broadly similar between the Apterygidae and Scolopacidae, however some inter-specific variation was found in the number, shape and orientation of sensory pits between the two groups. For comparison, we also included data from other taxa including waterfowl (Anatidae) and parrots (Psittaculidae and Cacatuidae), non-apterygid ratites, and other probe-foraging and non probe-foraging birds including non-scolopacid shorebirds (Charadriidae, Haematopodidae, Recurvirostridae and Sternidae). We compared the bill-tip structure and associated somatosensory regions in the brains of kiwi and shorebirds to understand the degree of convergence of these systems between the two taxa. Shorebirds, kiwi and ibises are only distantly related, with the phylogenetic divide between kiwi and the other two taxa being particularly deep. These ‘bill-tip organs’ allow birds to detect buried or submerged prey via substrate-borne vibrations and/or interstitial pressure gradients. ![]() That does it a disservice though, because Kiwi for Gmail basically integrates these services into your desktop, with separate windows for composing email and the ability to make Kiwi your default mail handler.Įverything works slickly and as you’d expect – if you’re looking to access your Gmail account from outside your browser, then Kiwi for Gmail Lite is well worth taking for a road-test.Ī slick way to integrate your Gmail account into your desktop without having to switch to a different user interface.Three families of probe-foraging birds, Scolopacidae (sandpipers and snipes), Apterygidae (kiwi), and Threskiornithidae (ibises, including spoonbills) have independently evolved long, narrow bills containing clusters of vibration-sensitive mechanoreceptors (Herbst corpuscles) within pits in the bill-tip. Kiwi for Gmail Lite doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel – at first glance it’s little more than a wrapper for the web-based interface, so will be instantly familiar to those currently accessing Google services through their browser. ![]() A separate Kiwi for Gmail app can be purchased through the App Store for $9.99 that not only allows you to connect up to six accounts at once, but also run G-Suite (Docs, Sheets and Slides) and Google Drive through the app too. ![]() Rather than tie up your web browser or make do with a third-party email client such as Thunderbird, Kiwi for Gmail Lite aims to provide you with a dedicated app that gives you access to your Gmail account, spanning mail, calendar and contacts. But while there are dedicated apps for accessing these features on your mobile, what about the desktop? Chances are you’ve got Gmail for email and make use of Google Drive and its associated apps for storing files and working on the go. In the cloud-connected 21st century, Google is currently king.
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