I was just looking to see if the lower eyelid was thicker, so as to act like blackout curtains. I found a paper on the Little Owl and it said the lower eyelid is thinner, but it did mention it was also more pigmented, so it may still block more light than the upper lid.
The little owl (Athene noctua) has movable eyelids (upper eyelid, palpebral dorsalis and lower eyelid, palpebral ventralis). The upper eyelid is shorter, thicker and high movable more than the lower one (Figs.6& 8). The palpebral margin “plica marginalis” of each eyelid is deeply pigmented and segmented into number of folds.
Owl muscle control is absolutely nuts. Moving plumicorns, ear feathers, the facial disc, even irises independently of each other… My mind can’t even imagine!
I was just looking to see if the lower eyelid was thicker, so as to act like blackout curtains. I found a paper on the Little Owl and it said the lower eyelid is thinner, but it did mention it was also more pigmented, so it may still block more light than the upper lid.
Owl muscle control is absolutely nuts. Moving plumicorns, ear feathers, the facial disc, even irises independently of each other… My mind can’t even imagine!
Huh, fascinating! It’d be interesting to experience the world the way they do, or really a lot of other critters.
Very much so! To try out super vision, super hearing, or seeing light in a different spectrum would be so cool!