ArticleScientific reports2016
Adaptive bill morphology for enhanced tool manipulation in New Caledonian crows.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Distinct temporal features of genuine and deliberate facial expressions of surprise.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- The flexible, the stereotyped and the in-between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Stick dexterity in carrion crows.Learning & behavior · 2026Article
- Protracted development of stick tool use skills extends into adulthood in wild western chimpanzees.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Online repositories of photographs and videos provide insights into the evolution of skilled hindlimb movements in birds.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Oscillatory extraction behaviour suggests functional attributes of crows' hooked-stick tools.Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Relationship between flightlessness and brain morphology among Rallidae.Journal of anatomy · 2022Article
- The diet of early birds based on modern and fossil evidence and a new framework for its reconstruction.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2021Review
- New Caledonian crows' basic tool procurement is guided by heuristics, not matching or tracking probe site characteristics.Animal cognition · 2021Article
- Habitual tool use innovated by free-living New Zealand kea.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Flexible motor adjustment of pecking with an artificially extended bill in crows but not in pigeons.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
- A novel tool-use mode in animals: New Caledonian crows insert tools to transport objects.Animal cognition · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Early increased sophistication of human tools is thought to be underpinned by adaptive morphology for efficient tool manipulation. Such adaptive specialisation is unknown in nonhuman primates but may have evolved in the New Caledonian crow, which has sophisticated tool manufacture. The straightness of its bill, for example, may be adaptive for enhanced visually-directed use of tools. Here, we examine in detail the shape and internal structure of the New Caledonian crow's bill using Principal Components Analysis and Computed Tomography within a comparative framework. We found that the bill has a combination of interrelated shape and structural features unique within Corvus, and possibly birds generally. The upper mandible is relatively deep and short with a straight cutting edge, and the lower mandible is strengthened and upturned. These novel combined attributes would be functional for (i) counteracting the unique loading patterns acting on the bill when manipulating tools, (ii) a strong precision grip to hold tools securely, and (iii) enhanced visually-guided tool use. Our findings indicate that the New Caledonian crow's innovative bill has been adapted for tool manipulation to at least some degree. Early increased sophistication of tools may require the co-evolution of morphology that provides improved manipulatory skills.
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