This is a rhinoceros hornbill at the LA Zoo. I assume the name comes from its big yellow horn, which looks sort of rhinoceros-like. I wonder what its evolutionary purpose is?
Lunchtime Photo
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Cats, charts, and politics
My first guess is that it's a resonator, to make its calls louder and deeper. Wikipedia doesn't address the issue.
This horn is a hollow structure made of keratin called a casque. It's believed that the casque acts like a megaphone to amplify the male hornbill's mating call.
sexual selection...accounts for lots of crazy things.
This. Impressing the opposite sex. Like the peacock's tail or the crazy dances the birds of paradise do.
Or could it be that it looks like his huge maw is gaping upward so that any frog or something down below will think he's looking away from them, and when he bends over it looks the same to any predator looking down on him?
Looks more like a bunch of bananas than a rhino to me. I guess "banana-bunch bird" just didn't fly...
similar to the parasaurolophus resonator
Isn't the reason for these crazy things always sexual selection (and specifically Fisherian runaway)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_selection
Looks like Trumps hairdo
+1, although it definitely does not possess any sexual selection advantage!
Female rhinoceros hornbills go nuts for males with big yellow horns. There is no accounting for taste.
As much as Trump is revered in his circles, I've never seen any guys emulating his hairdo.
Only poisonous caterpillars,
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=trump+caterpillar&atb=v355-1&iax=images&ia=images