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Figure 5 | BMC Biology

Figure 5

From: The songbird syrinx morphome: a three-dimensional, high-resolution, interactive morphological map of the zebra finch vocal organ

Figure 5

The internal bone structure of the male zebra finch demonstrates optimization by combining low weight with strength. (A) Ventral and (B) dorsal halves of a clipped bone surface rendering of non-contrasted μCT scan of the male syrinx, revealing the inside surface of the syrinx and cross-sectional views of the bronchial rings. The bronchial half-rings are hollow, laterally flattened, thin-walled bones fortified with trabeculae. The holes (asterisks) in the tympanum indicate lower X-ray attenuation values due to very thin walls or lower-density bone. The boxed inset shows a detailed view of bronchial half-rings B1 and B2 with trabeculae in bronchial half-ring B1. (C) Medial view of a semi-transparent volume rendering of the left hemisyrinx. Trabeculae can be seen as bright bars or dots, when seen on-axis, due to high density bone tissue (dashed circles). (D) Medial view of right hemisyrinx. Lateral flattening (ellipses) of bronchial half-rings increases their resistance to bending in the horizontal plane (dotted line and shaded plane) and therefore increases the maximal perpendicular force ( F ⊥ ) that can be applied before mechanical failure occurs due to breaking [75, 76]. The trabeculae prevent failure of the bones due to buckling [76]. Abbreviations as listed in Table 1.

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