Sul blog Curious Sengi, che racconta curiosità e particolarità legate al mondo della storia naturale, si parla di come l’evoluzione abbia modellato i becchi di alcuni uccelli, ad esempio falchi pellegrini e sule, per favorirne il comportamento in volo.

The Peregrine Falcon is a small North American raptor famous for its incredible high-speed dives.  These dives, or stoops, are generally reported to clock in at 200 mph (320 km/h).  […]  Traveling at such speeds requires many modifications, including some less obvious ones like redirecting airflow into the nostrils for breathing.  It is repeatedly said that the force of air entering the nose at 200 mph would cause the lungs to explode.  In order to prevent this from happening, there are bony tubercles in the nares that act as baffles to safely regulate the passage of air into the respiratory system.

In particolare si discutono le somiglianze fra alcune caratteristiche anatomiche e le scelte ingegneristiche di chi ha progetta aeroplani e altri dispositivi legati al volo.

Perhaps we felt confident in stating the purpose of the Peregrine Falcon’s unusual nostrils because we saw how engineers solved the problem of regulating air intake in jet engines in a very similar way.  In the post-WWII years, military aircraft were breaking more speed records with an ever sophisticated understanding and use of rocketry, but aircraft could only travel so fast until the engines would choke and then stall.  It was soon discovered that instead of passing through the cylinder of the jet engine, air flow was being diverted away, taking with it the oxygen necessary for combustion.

Tuttavia, l’autore mette in guardia dalla tendenza di creare una relazione troppo stretta fra questi due mondi:

Interpreting the function of anatomical structures is always going to be more nuanced than saying “structure X is perfectly adapted to serve purpose Y.”  The biological world is far removed from the world of engineering design.  In our interpretations, we have to take into account the baggage and constraints imposed by evolutionary history, experimentally prove that a given structure does have a function that enhances performance, and keep in mind that trade-offs exist.