Birds are highly visual animals and have been widely studied as models for the vertebrate visual system and its evolution. However, research has centered on only one of the two grand phylogenetic lineages of birds, Neognathae, while Palaeognathae have been mostly ignored. In my dissertation, I have conducted a comprehensive study of important elements of the visual system of a palaeognathous bird, the Chilean Tinamou (Nothoprocta perdicaria). These elements are the visual field, retinal ganglion cell topography, visual acuity, the neuroanatomy of retinofugal projections to the brain, and the centrifugal visual system which projects from the brain back to the retina.     «

Birds are highly visual animals and have been widely studied as models for the vertebrate visual system and its evolution. However, research has centered on only one of the two grand phylogenetic lineages of birds, Neognathae, while Palaeognathae have been mostly ignored. In my dissertation, I have conducted a comprehensive study of important elements of the visual system of a palaeognathous bird, the Chilean Tinamou (Nothoprocta perdicaria). These elements are the visual field, retinal ganglion...     »