At least two lineages of Mesozoic birds are known to have possessed a distinct feather morphotype for which there is no neornithine (modern) equivalent. The early stepwise evolution of apparently modern feathers occurred within Maniraptora, basal to the avian transition, with asymmetrical pennaceous feathers suited for flight present in the most basal recognized avian, Archaeopteryx lithographi...

Feather mites are obligatory ectosymbionts of birds that primarily feed on the oily secretions from the uropygial gland. Feather mite abundance varies within and among host species and has various effects on host condition and fitness, but there is little consensus on factors that drive variation of this symbiotic system. We tested hypotheses regarding how within-species and among-species trait...

The use of composite materials has expanded in industrial applications around the world, reinforcing composites with waste like (chicken feather) is one effective ways to solve environmental concerns compared traditional methods, as it considered renewable and inexpensive methods addition its presence abundance. main added features over classic are light-weight. This paper investigates effect i...

Genetically feathered and featherless sibling broilers selected for matched BW were killed, scalded, and defeathered to determine the consequences of feathers and empty feather follicles on the recovery of bacteria from carcass breast skin. In trial 1, the vents of all carcasses were plugged and sutured before scalding to prevent the expulsion of cloacal contents during picking. In trial 2, hal...

This experiment investigated effects of environmental enrichment and beak-trimming during the rearing period on behavior in rearing and plumage damage later in life. Treatments were applied in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. Half of the birds were beak-trimmed at 1 d of age using an infra-red laser. A follow-up light-trim was performed at 11 wk of age with a hot blade. Environmental enrichment c...

The objective of this study was to compare fattening performance, carcass traits, and egg quality of Japanese quails with different feather colors (white, dark brown, golden, and wild-type). In the study, 360 one-day-old quail chicks with 4 different feather colors were used as animal material. Quails were fed ad libitum for 42 days to determine fattening performance and carcass traits. To dete...

Feathers are hallmark avian integument appendages, although they were also present on theropods. They are composed of flexible corneous materials made of α- and β-keratins, but their genomic organization and their functional roles in feathers have not been well studied. First, we made an exhaustive search of α- and β-keratin genes in the new chicken genome assembly (Galgal4). Then, using transc...

Feather follicles have the extraordinary ability to regenerate and undergo molting cycles. Being tissue-specific stem cells, feather follicle stem cells (FFSCs) have a strong capacity for proliferation and are presumed to be progenitor cells for various epidermal organs. In order to characterize FFSCs and to understand how the feather epidermis and FFSCs produce such a reliable differentiation ...

Models of character evolution often assume a single mode of evolutionary change, such as continuous, or discrete. Here I provide an example in which a character exhibits both types of change. Hummingbirds in the genus Selasphorus produce sound with fluttering tail-feathers during courtship. The ancestral character state within Selasphorus is production of sound with an inner tail-feather, R2, i...

Poultry farms produce huge quantities of feather waste that causes serious local disposal and accumulative problems and results in environmental pollution. Feathers are composed of β-keratin rich protein and are highly resistant to degradation. The feather degradation potential of the non-pathogenic fungus Onygena corvina was investigated by cultivating this fungus in a medium with duck feather...