Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: dinosaur

Emus are so huge, strange and imposing that most people just stare at their intense face and enormous body! However, emu feet are just as incredible!! They don't even look real, do they?! Like their faces, one look at their feet will have you thinking DINOSAUR!! Did you know that all birds have scales on their legs and feet just like reptiles?! Emus have really big scales and they have three massive toes on each foot! Look at that enormous claw on their middle toe!! It's not hard to imagine the Velociraptor in this ancient bird's ancestry! In fact, the structure of dinosaur leg bones and joints are identical to emus and other ratites! Ratite toe counts: emus, rheas and cassowaries have 3 toes, kiwis have 4 toes, and ostriches have only 2! Emus are capable of running up to 30-31 (50kph) mles per hour and run at a comfortable speed of about 28 (45kph) miles per hour. They use their feet for defense and have extremely strong legs, able to rip wire fencing! The claws on their feet are used for combat and can inflict serious damage if they feel threatened or are protecting their territory. However, emus are almost always very docile and curious, but not dangerous.

Emus are fascinating to watch. They look strange, they act strange, and they even look odd when they are resting! At full rest they resemble a goose...sort of! And if you look at the picture below, you'll see their extra weird position, which is sort of like our version of sitting! (sorry about the fence, there wasn't much I could do about it! :D) Emus do not sleep through the night like many birds but instead take many naps in this sitting position, which is easy and fast to stand from if they are alarmed. It's very interesting to watch an emu stand from a laying position. First they rise to a sitting position, and then they stand up! It reminds me of how a camel stands! I found a short video of an emu moving around from a sitting position and then standing up and running. Great fun to see! "Baby emu sits down and eats " I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)

If you've been following my stream lately, you know that Steve and I went to an Emu farm about a month ago and were given a wonderful tour of the facilities to show us their operation. It was so much fun and very fascinating! High Cascade Emu Ranch raises their emus as an exotic livestock. They breed and sell emus and their eggs, but there's much more that goes on. Emus are an important healthy meat bird, but their skin is also made into some of the most wonderful leather in the world! The leather from Emus is very durable, supple, beautiful and breathable and can be made into anything you can think of where you've seen other leathers used. Here I have a picture showing the detail from a emu leather-bound jounal, and below are two dyed pieces of emu leather. Isn't it beautiful? I have always loved the way ostrich leather looks...well, emu leather is just as lovely and useful! :)

There are many people who come right out and say that emus and other ratites are not even birds because they differ in so many weird ways. Even their feathers are weird. Normal bird feathers "zip" together and keep their shape because the tiny vanes in each feather have interlocking barbs. Ratite feathers don't have this feature. This makes their feathers much softer, almost like strange hair. Here's another weird thing: emu feather shafts have TWO feathers attached, not just one! Amazing!! Emu feathers are wonderful for many different uses, including the feather duster below. They are used in jewelry, hair extensions, flower arrangements, fishing lures, and of course, hat accents! Did you know that Australians enjoy putting an emu feather in a hat and calling it a kangeroo feather?! :D They love to try to get tourists to believe them, and the funny thing is, there are lots of people who actually believe it! :D :D If you would like to know more about emu feathers, I found a very nice page here: Red Oak Farm: Learning About Emu Feathers

Doesn't this bird look like it's a dinosaur?! I just LOVE seeing birds with these primative bony growths! To me, they look like modern feathered dinosaurs! :) And the feathers are so lovely, I looked for some on the ground but sadly, I didn't find any. :(