What can one do with the nose? If one were Cleopatra of Egypt, she could rule Rome. If one were the unfortunate Sphinx of Egypt, his form minus the nose could become the wonderment of the World. If one were Tycho Brahe, he could remove the nose, for polishing amidst a heated debate or duel, to distract his opponent. For, he lost his original nose in a duel and had a metal one fixed. If one were the Tamil Detective Sambu created by Devan, he could run his thumb and index finger over the nose to make a deduction that is often wrong. If one is a proboscis monkey inhabiting the island of pulau pulau bompa, it endures the ignominy of its nose looking similar to Rastapopulous, the villain of Tintin comics.
What can one do if one is a toco toucan with its nose and mouth wrapped into one big bill? Of course, it can use the bill for quick thermo-regulation by exchanging heat with the environment.
In fact, in a matter of minutes toucans can release upto 400 percent of their metabolic heat through their bill. In a study I liked very much, Prof. Tattersall and team have measured the temperature of toucan bills in several surrounding and body conditions to arrive at such conclusions. These results were published in July 2009 issue of the Science magazine [1]. Several webs news services [3 - 6] briefed on these findings before the paper was actually published. This note is to discuss the published results in some detail.
(more…)
