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Science

Revealed: How Owls Turn Their Heads All the Way Around

Feb. 1, 2013 5:00pm Liz Klimas

It’s a myth that owls can turn their heads 360 degrees. They can, however, swivel them up to 270 degrees — and scientists have finally figured out how they do this without cutting off the blood supply to their brain.

First, watch just how dramatic an owl spinning its head can look (N0te: the actual swivel happens at 0:22):

Medical illustrators and neurological imaging experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine have taken what are thought to be the first CT scans and created the first medical illustrations showing several adaptations that allow the owls to turn in such a manner without injury, according to a press release.

Researchers Discover, Illustrate the Adaptations Allowing Owls to Swivel Heads 270 Degrees Without Damage

(Image: Fabian de Kok-Mercado, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Art as Applied to Medicine)

“Until now, brain imaging specialists like me who deal with human injuries caused by trauma to arteries in the head and neck have always been puzzled as to why rapid, twisting head movements did not leave thousands of owls lying dead on the forest floor from stroke,” study senior investigator and interventional neuroradiologist Philippe Gailloud, M.D, said in a statement. “The carotid and vertebral arteries in the neck of most animals – including owls and humans – are very fragile and highly susceptible to even minor tears of the vessel lining.”

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

The team studied different species of owls who died of natural causes by using an injectable dye that would show in the birds’ blood vessels in X-ray images. They manually turned the owls’ heads to conduct observations, and saw that the blood vessels got larger from the base of the head. The researchers pointed out that this is unlike human anatomy where blood vessels get smaller as they become more branched.

They also found the owls’ major arteries go through boney holes that are large enough to allow the blood vessel to move around comfortably. The major blood vessels also enter higher up on the neck, which gives them more room.

Here’s a look at more of the illustrations. You can see the full image in more detail here. (Image: Fabian de Kok-Mercado, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Art as Applied to Medicine)

“[O]ur new study results show precisely what morphological adaptations are needed to handle such head gyrations and why humans are so vulnerable to osteopathic injury from chiropractic therapy,” Gailloud said. “Extreme manipulations of the human head are really dangerous because we lack so many of the vessel-protecting features seen in owls.”

The work won the team first place in the posters and graphics category of the National Science Foundation’s 2012 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

Read more about the details about the adaptations discovered here.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

(H/T: io9)

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Comments (71)

Armyduderetired
Posted on February 3, 2013 at 3:41am
Taste like chicken! No birds were harmed in this research. They were all studied after death fron natural causes. Really? Define natural.

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- HellAndBack
  Posted on February 3, 2013 at 10:12pm
  Bird shot to the torso will kill you… Naturally.
  
  Report this comment
Arclight56
Posted on February 3, 2013 at 2:38am
I freaking love owls! They have to be the best birds ever created.

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GuruMeditation
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:29am
Hahaha…. It goes without saying… I dig owls!

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- Blacktooth
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 5:51pm
  Gurumeditation,
  
  Owls are indeed fantastic. I spent a night in an orange grove in Indio, CA. I watched an owl sitting in a tree for many minutes. At viewing a mouse on the ground, it glided down without any effort at all and with no noise, simply snatched that mouse and flew back to his tree. No muss, no fuss, and I was fascinated at the engineering and the design of that owl. Only God can make an owl…..or a tree!
  
  Report this comment
sbenard
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 10:08am
What a brilliant example of Divine Engineering!

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- davecorkery
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:34am
  You mean natural selection, and evolution, of course.
  
  Report this comment
- john vincent
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 1:31pm
  Cork-
  
  SBE didnt stutter
  
  He said divine engineering- ie
  a Creator
  
  Report this comment
- Krutch
  Posted on February 3, 2013 at 5:16pm
  @ davecorcory
  Yeah, Gods’ natural selection.
  All these darwin idiots never take into consideration that God is the deisgner of evolution and natural selection!
  
  Report this comment
- HellAndBack
  Posted on February 3, 2013 at 10:21pm
  Yep Natural Selection… God Designed All Creatures to Naturally Reproduce and Adapt JUST AS HE ENGINEERED THEM!! Science has NO Law of Evolution… Just a Theory. God Has an Absolute Answer and we call it NATURAL LAW. Science forgot that it is just Reverse Engineering What God WILLED into existence. They have NEVER made anything out of Nothing that wasn’t already here because of God. And Every time the “Discover” something… they find there is another SOMETHING beyond that. I am glad they pursue these things because it is Fascinating and in keeping with God’s Word, I just think they need to come down off their high horses and realize they are still but children and know less and less as they find more and more.
  
  Report this comment
ktmrider1
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 9:12am
I woild like owls a lot more if it werent for the fact that they along with flys, fish rats, turtles, lizards toads, and so on and so on keep me from being able to do my job as a heavy equipment operator

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- AB5r
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 10:09am
  It isn’t their fault, it is the insane liberals. The owls would have the sense to move to a different place once you started moving earth around.
  
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dont-care-anymore
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 7:59am
Barred owls eat the smaller spotted owl … so the goobermint is shooting barred owls to artificially save the spotted owls so they can lock up more land out west. …devolution at its best

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sizzlinsexybeckster
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 5:44am
They are cute! I love the owl leaning back with some red berries. They sound so cute! I’d like to take them home with me! Oh… wait… they might try to eat my cat or those silly sea-monkeys!

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Junter
Posted on February 2, 2013 at 2:19am
Come on tell us how much this study cost.. 200k? 2million?

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- sillyfreshness
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 2:58am
  Owls are the rock stars of the bird world. Rock on owls!!
  
  Report this comment
john vincent
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 9:35pm
Just another nail on the coffin of evolution-
what a design to confound the sceptic-

owls are very cool-

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- Keatonc333
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 2:41am
  Nail in the coffin of evolution? you serious? Just because something works doesn’t mean it had to be designed. but hey if you want to throw away mountains of evidence because you think this can’t be explained through evolution be my guest.
  
  Report this comment
- L.B.Stephens
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:03am
  Keaton – “Just because something works doesn’t mean it had to be designed.”
  
  Did you really mean to say that?
  
  Report this comment
- john vincent
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 1:26pm
  lb-
  
  good call, its like drawing attention to the obvious
  
  Report this comment
- Keatonc333
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 3:43pm
  Yes I said that, I don’t get how you guys can ignore mountains and mountains of proof of evolution just because an owls neck can move 270 degrees
  
  Report this comment
- john vincent
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 4:10pm
  keaton-
  good talk
  
  its not JUST the owl….
  and it was not THE nail….
  it is ANOTHER nail-
  
  nature is a great teacher-
  
  if evolution was valid in this sense- the owl could do a Linda Blair- why stop @ 270?
  
  Report this comment
- Blacktooth
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 5:40pm
  Keatonc333,
  
  This is interesting, can you identify something that works, and it was not designed?
  
  Report this comment
Ruckus_Tom
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 8:27pm
Owls are very neat. I didn’t know their eyes don’t move thus, the spinning head.

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- Mojoron
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 8:59pm
  Next to dogs, the owl is the most interesting animal. Its too bad we can’t have owls, koala’s and snow monkey’s as pets.
  
  Report this comment
- banjarmon
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 9:41pm
  Have you ever heard the feathers ruffling on a flying Owl?
  
  Report this comment
AB5r
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:53pm
During the Golden Age of Islamic learning they knew all about this. Then the Crusaders invaded and ruined everything.

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- ALL4FREEDOM
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 7:04pm
  They have re-learned precious little since then.
  
  Report this comment
- AB5r
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 7:27pm
  They never actually knew anything in the first place, it is a myth. All they did was invade other civilizations and then claim their knowledge for their own, but no further learning occurred.
  
  Report this comment
- ALL4FREEDOM
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 9:15pm
  Well, maybe one thing – I think they came up with the idea of zero.
  
  Report this comment
- AB5r
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 10:46pm
  Another lie, that was from the Hindus.
  
  Report this comment
- Keatonc333
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 2:34am
  Really.. its a story about Owls… can you really not leave islam out of anything?
  
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- AB5r
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:06am
  Keatonc333, tragically, since liberals insist on allowing Islam to spread in the West, including in America, there is nothing, literally, that is outside the scope and range of Islam. Islam is an all-encompassing blanket that covers and eventually smothers every single aspect of any society it spreads in. There is no escaping it short of not having it within your borders, and even then if neighboring countries have it you are still affected but less so.
  
  Also, please respond to my comment about how impossible it would have been for the owl to evolve posted elsewhere on this article.
  
  Report this comment
- Keatonc333
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 3:44pm
  AB5R liberals love the constitution. where there is a freedom of religion. so yes if people want to be islamic i support that right.
  
  Report this comment
- AB5r
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 5:25pm
  Keatonc333, that makes no sense, the religion of Islam, the actual religion, the core doctrines, the writings, etc., does not allow the so-called “equal rights” that the Constitution claims we all have. Islam also allows Muslims to lie in order to further the Jihad so if some Muslim told you that Islam is compatible with the Constitution they were lying to you. But as someone gullible enough to believe in evolution perhaps you are not capable of engaging in any hard thinking about Islam either. Please take some time and learn about Islam so that you will not continue to make such silly comments.
  
  http://www.thereligionofpeace.com is a good place to start.
  
  Report this comment
- AB5r
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 5:32pm
  Keatonc333 Well be sure to read this story about how well Islam is working out for Britain:
  
  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/02/terrifying-niqab-wearing-assailant-reportedly-attacks-victorias-secret-employee-with-acid-in-london/
  
  Report this comment
South Philly Boy
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:38pm
The SAME WAY POLITICIANS DO

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- CatB
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:45pm
  They are more like vultures than owls .. picking the taxpayers clean.
  
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- ADNIL
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:57pm
  What is the difference between a politician and a vulture?
  
  The vulture waits until you’re dead.
  
  Report this comment
whatthecrazy
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:16pm
So. obamas head can go around twice.What do ya call that?

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- CatB
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:47pm
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO9FD7zI7k0
  
  Here you go.
  
  Report this comment
WhiteFang
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:12pm
Did owls evolve or were they designed?

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- crackerone
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:33pm
  The owl evolved from the early dinosaur’s morning constitutional. (sarc on)
  
  The afternoon constitutional provided a chain of command for our present day liberals. (sarc off)
  
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- AB5r
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:50pm
  Well, duh, obviously they evolved! Since their eye sockets evolved to not move around all the way like other animals eyes, evolution provided the perfect solution, a neck with special blood vessels which allows the neck to move more. This was tricky because until the special neck fully evolved many owls were killed when they didn’t see prey coming for them and others were killed from burst blood vessels as they strained to turn their head to see what was coming. So one might be tempted to say it is a “miracle” that owls evolved at all, but we all know there is no such thing as miracles.
  
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- skippy6
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 9:19pm
  There is more going on in a single cell than Darwin ever could have imagined….
  
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- Keatonc333
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 2:39am
  Yes of course they evolved. they evolved from the smaller theropod dinosaurs, like the Raptors and ornitholestes, these evolved into birds, toothed birds that is. birds then lost their teeth and continued to evolve into the many wonderful species you see today, including the owl. look up the archaeopteryx its sort of the “missing link” connecting birds with dinosaurs.
  
  Report this comment
- L.B.Stephens
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 11:09am
  Keatonc333,
  
  Your faith in the evolution explanation is remarkable. Faith is a powerful motivator.
  
  Report this comment
- Keatonc333
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 3:45pm
  LB its not faith. its taking a few extra minutes to learn about the evolutionary process of birds
  
  Report this comment
suz
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:51pm
…geez are they even a fowl?

i don’t care, i love them.

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suz
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:50pm
…my favorite FOWL.

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- AmericaMustBeFree
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:19pm
  Whats it taste like?? LOL
  
  Report this comment
suz
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:49pm
my favorite foul.

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:46pm
Now if they can medically explain the phenom. of how politicians can talk out of their A$$es and how Obama can breath with his head firmly up his butt.

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- Gorp
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 1:27am
  Roflmao
  
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hades3
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:46pm
I’m still working on the fact that certain politicians can function with their heads firmly stuck
up their behinds. Help me out here !!!!!!

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LOJ
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:36pm
This is pretty cool…another one of God’s miracles, owls can see whats coming behind them, that is really unique.

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lildrummerboy
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:27pm
wow..so this is what the blaze has come too? blahhh blahh blahhh

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brigott
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:23pm
It’s amazing what animals can decide to evolve out of chaos, isn’t it?

Actually, they were specially designed by a wise, loving Creator Who gave them unique and special abilities.

Yes, that same Creator Who endowed us with certain unalienable rights, including but not limited to, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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- Keatonc333
  Posted on February 2, 2013 at 2:43am
  explain to me dinosaur bones
  
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Dismayed Veteran
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:16pm
I thought all you had to do was spin your head around and projectile vomit.

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hauschild
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:15pm
Took them THIS long to figure that out???

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- RamonPreston
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:52pm
  Really. I had a pet owl 50 years ago. Caught him stealing a rabbit. He sat on a perch for years. Dad hand fed him chicken and said that if “Henry” had known how good it was going to be he would have come and knocked on the door years before,
  
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- crackerone
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 6:38pm
  @ramon
  
  Of all the creatures God put on this earth my favorite is the dog. Next is the owl. How long did he hang around?
  
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pragmaticpatriot
Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:13pm
sooo, my ex wifes head spinning like a top is because shes an owl?? who who who woulda known? that would explain the screeching and taste for blood too…

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