Ospreys have talons that are large, highly curved and nearly uniform, especially suited for catching fish. This osprey snatched a fish from the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park. (Credit: MSU photo by Kelly Gorham)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2009) — A journey that started with a box of bird feet carried three Montana State University graduate students into the gruesome world of raptors and led to their findings being published in a prominent journal.

Normally focused on dinosaurs, the students compared the claws and killing methods of four types of raptors and published a paper about their research in the Nov. 25th issue of PLoS ONE, a scientific journal published online by the Public Library of Science. The birds of prey that were studied live in North America and Europe and include eagles and hawks, owls, osprey and falcons.

"It was very surprising that it wasn't done before," lead author Denver Fowler said of the study.

"It was a very interesting project," said Elizabeth Freedman, one of two co-authors. "People just haven't noticed some of these things before."

Fowler, Freedman and John Scannella — all MSU graduate students who conduct paleontology research in MSU's Museum of the Rockies — planned to investigate a box of raptor feet stored in the museum, Fowler said. The feet were preserved by Cynthia Marshall Faux, a former postdoctoral researcher at the university. The graduate students thought that examining the feet was a small project they could do over spring break a few years ago, but it took far longer and became much more involved than they expected.

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