Beak-er is Better: Anatomists find erectile tissue in Flamingo beaks.

Growing up in Canada, my animal lexicon comprised all those creatures associated with the forests of the True North Wild And Free: bears, moose, beavers, wolves.  With so many animals taking on different shades of brown, my childhood amazement on zoo trips was to be expected.  I was always in awe of the tropical animals, especially the flamingo: its long, spindly wading legs and skinny neck suggested the need to stay cool, its characteristic coral-pink just screamed “Hot! Hot! Hot!” and of course its boomerang-shaped bill reeked of the tropical and exotic. The flamingo was, in my mind, the epitome of animal peculiarity.

Late last year, scientists at Ohio University discovered yet another reason to set flamingos apart from their feathered brethren: erectile tissue built straight into their mouths. In a study designed to look at the vascular system and muscles of the flamingo head, the research team injected specific barium/latex solutions into the blood vessels, allowing them to differentiate arteries from veins in their three-dimensional CAT scans.  They unexpectedly discovered two large tissues, termed paralingual sinuses, which have not been seen in any related bird species.  More notably, these tissues are suspiciously similar to erectile tissue.

Lead author Casey Holliday and his colleagues have suggested that flamingo beaks might contain such heavily vascularized tissue as a means of regulating salt or heat.  However, the scientists believe it’s more likely that these tissues help stabilize the mouth and tongue during the flamingo’s intricate feeding routine – inverting the head, swishing it around in the water and then straining food between beak and tongue. Published in The Anatomical Record last fall, the flamingo paralingual sinuses trump any erectile tissue ever to be featured on the cover of a publication, scientific or otherwise.