Meeting Abstract
Feathers have been evolving for more than 130 million years under selection pressures to become light, stiff and strong. However, detailed investigation into their internal material structure (and properties) is still lacking. Previously, we have shown that the laminar structure of the feather shaft varies around its circumference and along its length. This is based on the observation of pseudo-ellipsoid voids, which can be observed with Synchrotron Radiation Computed Tomography (SRCT) at ultra-high resolution (~300 nm).
Here, we present the orientations of these ellipsoids and map how they change with spatial location. By doing this, we are able to quantify the laminar structure around and along the feather shaft for the first time using a repeatable method. These results are an important step forward in analysing the feather shaft as a laminar composite, so that future work can explore the form:function relationship of this complex structure in more detail.
