A secret mathematical rule has shaped the beaks of birds and other dinosaurs for 200 million years

By Kathleen Garland, PhD Candidate, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University
Alistair Evans, Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University

Bird beaks come in almost every shape and size – from the straw-like beak of a hummingbird to the slicing, knife-like beak of an eagle.

We have found, however, that this incredible diversity is underpinned by a hidden mathematical rule that governs the growth and shape of beaks in nearly all living birds.

What’s more, this rule even describes beak shape in the long-gone ancestors of birds – the dinosaurs. We are excited to share our findings, now published in the journal iScience.

By studying…

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