Time to update the notes...

...and, I guess, most of the textbooks, too. It appears that the old "birds have lighter bones" is just not true. This is, apparently, something that people working with birds have long be aware of, but it certainly has not made it's way into most of the texts I see. It hasn't been long since I was pointing out to students the remarkable lightness of the skeleton of the magnificent frigatebird. Regardless, bat researcher Elizabeth Dumont of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has demonstrated in a new paper coming out in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B that, even though the bones of birds are often thin and hollow, they are, in fact, denser than those of mammals. Dr. Dumont points out that "this is a new way to think about how bird skeletons are specialized for flying and solves the riddle of why bird skeletons appear so lightweight and are still relatively heavy." She goes on to say that these facts have not made it into textbooks, and she'd like to see that rectified. I would too.