Scansoriopterygidae scansoriopterygids had a semilunate carpal (half-moon shaped wrist bone) that allowed for bird-like folding motion in the hand. Even if powered flight was not possible, this motion could have aided maneuverability in leaping from branch to branch. The adult specimen of "Epidexipteryx" lacked preserved feathers around the forelimbs, but preserved simple feathers on the body and long, ribbon-like feathers on the tail. The tail feathers, likely used in display, consisted of a central shaft (rachis) and unbranched vane (unlike the vanes of modern feathers, which are broken up into smaller filaments or barbs). "Yi" also preserves feathers. These are notably
Calamus (poems) This cluster of poems contains a number of images and motifs that are repeated throughout. The most important is probably the Calamus root itself. "Acorus calamus" or Sweet Flag is a marsh-growing plant similar to a cat-tail. Whitman continues through this one of the central images of "Leaves of Grass"--Calamus is treated as a larger example of the grass that he writes of elsewhere. Some scholars have pointed out, as reasons for Whitman's choice, the phallic shape of what Whitman calls the "pink-tinged roots" of Calamus, its mythological association with failed male same-sex love and with writing (see Kalamos), and