Birds
In birds with webbed feet, retia mirabilia in the legs and feet transfer heat from the outgoing (hot) blood in the arteries to the incoming (cold) blood in the veins. The effect of this biological heat exchanger is that the internal temperature of the feet is much closer to the ambient temperature, thus reducing heat loss. Penguins have them also in the flippers and nasal passages.
Read more about this topic: Rete Mirabile
Famous quotes containing the word birds:
“I sowed the seeds of love,
It was all in the spring,
In April, May, and June, likwise,
When small birds they do sing.”
—Mrs. Fleetwood Habergham (d. 1703)
“To warm their little Loves the Birds complain:”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)
“It was soldiers went marching over the rocks
And still the birds came, came in watery flocks,
Because it was spring and the birds had to come.
No doubt that soldiers had to be marching
And that drums had to be rolling, rolling, rolling.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)