Learn how owls can rotate their heads.
Have you ever wondered how it is physically possible for an owl to turn its head so far around?
A new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland have found that there are several attributes unique to an owl’s necks that allow the birds to turn their heads almost in a complete circle.
The limited eye movement in owls makes it so that they have to turn their heads to see their periphery.
Owls have twice as many bones in their neck than humans; also their bone cavities and blood vessels are uniquely capable of allowing blood flow to take alternate routes when they rotate their heads.
Most species of birds have very flexible necks, but owls are known to turn their heads up to 270 degrees around in each direction.
One of the researchers, Doctor Phillippe Gailloud said: “Our results show precisely what morphological adaptations are needed to handle such head gyrations and why humans are so vulnerable to osteopathic injury from chiropractic therapy. Extreme manipulations of the human head are really dangerous because we lack so many of the vessel-protecting features seen in owls.”
