The Skull of Larus glaucescens Without the Lower Mandible.

Gulls “drink” a lot of salt water. To maintain homeostasis the gull has quite large “salt glands” situated in a depression above the eye orbits. These depressions are quite evident in the skull.

comments (3)

Claire Hamilton

Lion

Interesting! Posted 6 years ago
1. gary fast
  
  Lion
  
  Claire, yes, interesting to me as well. I knew about the salt glands but did not know they were that large. Posted 6 years ago
2. 1. Claire Hamilton
    
    Lion
    
    I didn't actually know about salt glands so fascinating! Posted 6 years ago

The Glaucous-winged gull

The glaucous-winged gull is a large, white-headed gull. The genus name is from Latin "Larus" which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird. The specific "glaucescens" is New Latin for "glaucous" from the Ancient Greek, "glaukos", denoting the grey color of its wings.

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Similar species: Shorebirds And Allies

Species identified by gary fast