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
Calamus, Iowa a more favorable location in what is now the town of Calamus. The present day location of Calamus, a small village on the Union Pacific Railway, was platted in 1860 by R. S. Dickinson, who owned the land on the north side of the railroad, and Col. Milo Smith, who owned that on the south. James Keith opened the first store here containing a small stock of groceries and accessories, located about where the present day Faith Lutheran Church stands. In 1861, R.S. Dickinson and his son A.L. built the first general store, and opened a large and complete stock