Necks lie: solitaire weka edition
May 2, 2018
Here at SV-POW! we’re big fans of the way that animals’ neck skeletons are much more extended, and often much longer, than you would guess by looking at the complete animal, with its misleading envelope of flesh.
Here’s another fine example, from John Hutchinson’s new post A Museum Evolves:
Solitaire Weka (flightless bird), skeleton and taxidermy at University Museum of Zoology at Cambridge (UMZC). Photo by John Hutchinson.
Looking at the stuffed bird, it seems that it could get by perfectly well with half as many cervical vertebra, if only it didn’t carry them in such a strange posture.
Well — I say strange. It seems inefficient, yet it must be doing something useful, because it’s essentially ubiquitous among birds and many mammals … including rabbits, as long-time readers will remember.
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
May 2, 2018 at 8:37 am
[…] Necks lie: solitaire edition […]
May 2, 2018 at 10:06 pm
A “coiled” neck allows for making a strike, no?
May 3, 2018 at 4:09 am
Couple of things going on in birds. One is that the fleshy envelope around the cervical vertebrae lies, as shown in this post. The other is that the feathers lie even more, by creating an apparent body profile that doesn’t track either the skin or the bones – that’s really what this post is showing, along with the “owl trousers” post from about this time last year.* Mammals mostly lie the first way – unless they’re really shaggy, they don’t have the capacity to lie the second way. I assume the lying feathers are for better streamlining, insulation, and camouflage.
* Every ‘X lie’ post has gone up in either May or September. Weird.
May 3, 2018 at 8:44 am
As noted in the comments on Hutchinsons post it looks much more like a Gallirallus; solitaires have much heavier bills.
May 3, 2018 at 9:41 am
Anthony, the coiled-neck-for-striking idea makes sense, but then why would herbivorous birds retain it? I think there must be something else going on.
Anyone out there familiar with the ornithology literature, who knows whether this has been addressed?
May 4, 2018 at 4:46 am
Maybe it’s to retain the flexibility (literally and figuratively) of a long neck, but keep the head closer to the center of gravity. Also, a lot of birds bob their heads when they walk to help maintain balance. Keeping the neck in an S-curve would facilitate that, while allowing the head to stay relatively stable for sensory continuity. S-curves are good for dissipating shocks, which is probably why we have two of them in our own spines.
May 4, 2018 at 8:14 am
That all makes sense, Matt.
May 8, 2018 at 7:07 pm
One of the biggest liars in the bird neck department is the green heron, Buorides virescens. The neck makes up about half the length of the spinal column, but in the habitual pose the head looks like it’s protruding directly from between the shoulders. The covering of feathers completely hides the outline of the neck.
May 8, 2018 at 8:11 pm
Yep — as noted and illustrated in Herons lie (and so do shoebills)!
May 30, 2024 at 5:48 am
I hope this doesn’t come across as pedantic but I think the title should be changed since, as has already been pointed out, this is not a solitaire, nor is it similar in appearance or closely related to one. Nor is it possible that any prepared skin could belong to this species, since it is only known from skeletal remains. The Rodrigues Solitaire is an extinct species of flightless pigeon, the bird in the photo is a flightless rail, probably a Weka.
May 30, 2024 at 10:01 am
Thanks, Matthew — now fixed.