Cleaning claw

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Serrated cleaning claw on the front middle toe of a gray heron
Cleaning claw of a ring-tailed lemur

A cleaning claw is a structure on the limbs that has arisen independently of one another in several animal groups and is used for body care.

Cleaning claws in birds

Different bird groups and species have a distinctive, special claw shape. The cleaning claw, usually the claw of the middle toe, is often elongated and flattened and serrated on the inside or provided with a more or less distinct comb-like structure. It is used for plumage care.

One finds a particularly pronounced cleaning claw in the gray heron . It is also found in various waders (e.g. black-tailed godwit , curlew-like ), gannets , goat milkers and some owls .

Cleaning claws in primates

The wet-nosed monkeys have a structure that rises steeply from the toe on the second toe, which is known as a cleaning claw - they have nails on all other fingers and toes . This structure is believed to be an adaptation to more efficient grooming and is a common derived characteristic of wet-nosed monkeys. The Koboldmakis - which were also counted among the wet-nosed monkeys in the past - have a cleaning claw on the second and third toe, this characteristic is missing in all other primates.

It is not known whether cleaning claws are an original primate trait or whether this trait developed convergently in wet-nosed monkeys and goblin lemurs .

literature

To birds

  • Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim , KM Bauer : Handbook of the birds of Central Europe. Volume 1: Gaviiformes - Phoenicopteriformes. AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1993/2001 (first edition 1966), ISBN 3-923527-00-4 , (Fig. For the gray heron's cleaning claw on p. 301).
  • Ralf Wassmann: Ornithological pocket dictionary. AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1999. ISBN 3-8910-4627-8

To primates

  • Thomas Geissmann: Comparative Primatology. Springer, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3540436456 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ralf Wassmann: Ornithological Pocket Lexicon. AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1999. ISBN 3-8910-4627-8 , p. 183
  2. ↑ Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim , KM Bauer: Handbuch der Vögel Mitteleuropas . Volume 1: Gaviiformes - Phoenicopteriformes, AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1993/2001 (first edition 1966), ISBN 3-923527-00-4 , pp. 301f
  3. ↑ Thomas Geissmann: Comparative Primatology. Springer, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3540436456 , p. 31f