Pygostyle

Pope's nose redirects here. It may also refer to the license plate light on early Volkswagen Beetles.

Pigeon skeleton with "plowshare"-type pygostyle (number 17)

Confuciusornis sanctus with "rod"-type pygostyle and the two central tail feathers

Pygostyle refers to a number of the final few caudal vertebrae fused into a single ossification, supporting the tail feathers and musculature. In modern birds, the rectrices attach to these.

The pygostyle is the main component of the structure colloquially known as Pope's nose, parson's nose or sultan's nose. This is the fleshy protuberance visible at the posterior end of a bird (most commonly a chicken or turkey) that has been dressed for cooking. It has a swollen appearance because it also contains the uropygial gland that produces preen oil. Some people consider it to be a sweet and tender delicacy when cooked, whilst others might consider it rather greasy.

Evolution

Pygostyles probably started to evolve very early in the Cretaceous, maybe 140-130 million years ago. The earliest known species to have evolved a pygostyle were members of the Confuciusornithidae. The structure provided an evolutionary advantage, as a completely mobile tail like in Archaeopteryx is detrimental to its use for flight control. Modern birds still develop longer caudal vertebrae in their embryonal state, which later fuse to form a pygostyle.

There are two main types of pygostyle: one, found in Confuciusornithidae, Enantiornithes, and some other Mesozoic birds, as well as in some oviraptorosaurs like Nomingia, is long and rod- or dagger blade-like. None of the known fossils with such pygostyles that also retain feather traces had well-developed rectrices. The tail feathers in these animals consisted of downy fuzz and sometimes 2-4 central "streamers" such as those found in some specimens of Confuciusornis or in Paraprotopteryx.^[1]

By contrast, the function of the pygostyle in the terrestrial Nomingia is not known. It is notable however that its older relative Caudipteryx had no pygostyle but a "fan" of symmetrical feathers which were probably used in social display. Perhaps such ornaments were widespread in Caenagnathoidea and their relatives, and ultimately the oviraptorosaurian pygostyle evolved to help support them. However, few oviraptorosaurs were found in sediment fine-grained enough to permit fossilization of feathers, and Nomingia is not among these. The related Similicaudipteryx, described in 2008, also had a rod-like pygostyle, though it does not retain feather traces either.^[2]

Yixianornis grabaui, the oldest known species with a pygostyle like in living birds

The other pygostyle type is plowshare-shaped. It is found in Ornithurae (living birds and their closest relatives), and in almost all flying species is associated with an array of well-developed rectrices used in maneuvring. The central pair of these attach directly to the pygostyle, just as in Confuciusornis. The other rectrices of Ornithurae are held in place and moved by structures called bulbi rectricium (rectricial bulbs), a complex feature of fat and muscles located on either side of the pygostyle. The oldest known species with such a pygostyle is Yixianornis grabaui. This bird lived at the same time as Confuciusornis (around 125-120 million years ago), supporting the theory that the two pygostyle types of birds evolved independently.^[1]

As evidenced by the oviraptorosaurian cases, the pygostyle evolved at least twice; as indicated by the differences between Enantiornithes and modern birds, it may well have evolved thrice. In other words, the pygostyle of Nomingia and that of a chicken is a homoplasy, whereas that of Enantiornis and a chicken is either a homoplasy too or a synapomorphy.^[1]

The bird clade Pygostylia was named in 1996, by Luis Chiappe, for the presence of this feature and roughly corresponds to its appearance in the bird family tree, though the feature itself is not included in its definition.^[3] In 2001, Jacques Gauthier and Kevin de Queiroz (2001) re-defined Pygostylia to refer specifically to the apomorphy of a short tail bearing an avian pygostyle.

Etymology

"Pygostyle" is of Ancient Greek origin, literally meaning "rump pillar".

The phrase "parson's nose", from the notion that an English parson may 'have his nose in the air', upturned like the chicken's rear end. The term must have been known as early as around 1400 AD, when a carpenter had been contracted to provide new choir stalls for St Mary's Church, Nantwich.^{[verification needed]} The vicar was either slow to pay the artisan, or did not pay at all. In retaliation, on the last misericord in the stalls, the carpenter carved a bird with an image of that Vicar's face with protuberant nose as rump. The carving is still visible today and featured on a postcard on sale at the church.

A similar derivation applies to the phrase "Pope's nose", which may have originated as a derogatory term meant to demean Catholics in England during the late 17th century.

"Sultan's nose" probably was coined some time during the Early Modern era wars against the Ottoman Empire.

It is also known that tertiary syphilis can create facial deformities, especially a characteristic deformity of the nose due to gummatous involvement. (Gummas are the soft tissue masses that occur after long standing, untreated syphilis).Many famous figures throughout history, including popes, were known to have this deformity.

See also

• Bird skeleton

Footnotes

References

• Clarke, Julia A.; Zhou, Zhonghe & Zhang, Fucheng (2006): Insight into the evolution of avian flight from a new clade of Early Cretaceous ornithurines from China and the morphology of Yixianornis grabaui. Journal of Anatomy 208 (3):287-308. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7580.2006.00534.x PDF fulltext Electronic Appendix
• He, T.; Wang, X.-L. & Zhou, Z.-H. (2008): A new genus and species of caudipterid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of western Liaoning, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 46(3): 178-189.