Alec Wilken lab member

Alec Wilken co-authors a new paper on prokinesis in the feeding and locomotor systems of parrots

Alec Wilken is on a new paper from Michael Grantosky’s Comparative Animal Motion Lab at NYIT. The paper describes how rosy-faced lovebirds use prokinesis during tripedal climbing and mandibular/maxillary adduction, i.e., biting. They report that the maxilla is primarily responsible for generating force during locomotion and the mandible is primarily responsible for generating force during jaw adduction. It suggests that these parrots can alter prokinetic function using modulation of neuromuscular control.