Inzunza O, Bravo H, Smith R L, Angel M
Departmento de Anatomía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago.
Anat Rec. 1991 Feb;229(2):271-7. doi: 10.1002/ar.1092290214.
The topographic distribution of retinal ganglion cells and their cell body size have been studied in five Falconiform species, including predatory (chilean eagle Buteo fuscenses australis, and sparrow hawk Falco sparverius) and carrion-eating (chimango caracara Milvago chimango; condor Vultur gryphus, and black vulture Coragyps atratus) birds. All these species had a well defined nasal fovea and a horizontal streak. Instead of a temporal fovea as in eagles and hawks, an afoveate temporal area is present in chimango, condor, and vulture. The highest ganglion cell density was found in the nasal fovea of Falco and Buteo with 65,000 and 62,000 cells/mm2, respectively. A negative correlation between ganglion cell density and cell body size was found in all the species studied. The specializations of the temporal retina showed a rather homogenous population of medium sized neurons, while the nasal foveas showed a homogeneous population of smaller ganglion cells. Finally, the peripheral retina showed a heterogeneous population of large, medium, and small ganglion cells. Predatory behavior appears to be closely related to foveal specializations, and is best exemplified in the eagle and hawk and to a lesser extent in the chimango.
在五种隼形目鸟类中研究了视网膜神经节细胞的地形分布及其细胞体大小，这些鸟类包括食肉鸟类（智利鹰黑胸鹰和雀鹰）和食腐鸟类（ Chimango 卡拉卡拉鹰、安第斯神鹫和黑兀鹰）。所有这些物种都有一个界限分明的鼻侧中央凹和一条水平纹。与鹰和隼不同， Chimango 卡拉卡拉鹰、安第斯神鹫和黑兀鹰没有颞侧中央凹，而是有一个无中央凹的颞侧区域。在隼和鹰的鼻侧中央凹中发现了最高的神经节细胞密度，分别为65000个和62000个细胞/平方毫米。在所研究的所有物种中，神经节细胞密度与细胞体大小之间呈负相关。颞侧视网膜的特化显示出中等大小神经元的相当均匀的群体，而鼻侧中央凹显示出较小神经节细胞的均匀群体。最后，周边视网膜显示出大、中、小神经节细胞的异质群体。捕食行为似乎与中央凹特化密切相关，在鹰和隼中表现最为明显，在 Chimango 卡拉卡拉鹰中程度稍低。
