Pennaceous feather Pennaceous feather The pennaceous feather is a type of feather present in most modern birds and in some other species of maniraptoriform dinosaurs. A pennaceous feather has a stalk or quill. Its basal part, called a "calamus", is embedded in the skin. The calamus is hollow and has pith formed from the dry remains of the feather pulp, and the calamus opens below by an "inferior umbilicus" and above by a "superior umbilicus". The stalk above the calamus is a solid "rachis" having an umbilical groove on its underside. Pennaceous feathers have a rachis with "vanes" or "vaxillum " spreading
USS Calamus (AOG-25) USS Calamus (AOG-25) USS "Calamus" (AOG-25) was a "Mettawee"-class gasoline tanker acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet, and to remote Navy stations. "Calamus" was launched 4 May 1944 by East Coast Shipyard, Inc., Bayonne, New Jersey, under a Maritime Commission contract; sponsored by Mrs. A. H. Moore; transferred to the Navy 7 July 1944; and commissioned the same day, Lieutenant W. Hord, USCGR, in command. "Calamus" sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, 13 September 1944, bound for Pearl Harbor and Ulithi, where she arrived in mid-December and began her work as