Nutmeg-loving toucans wearing GPS transmitters recently helped a team of scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama address an age-old problem in plant ecology: accurately estimating seed dispersal.

The evolution of bird bills is related to climate according to latest research by the University of Melbourne, Australia and Brock University, Canada.

The toucan's large bill helps it release heat when the colorful bird's body becomes too warm, researchers at Canada's Brock University said. Scientists, including Charles Darwin, traditionally believed the toucan's bill helped attract mates, peel fruit or act as territorial weapons and visual warnings to predators, Brock researcher Glenn Tattersall said in a release Thursday. The toucan has the largest bill of any bird, relative to body size, its bill comprising about one-third of its total body length. Tattersall's team photographed captive toucans with infrared cameras, which showed the toucans' bills acted as a thermal window glowing with radiated heat as warm blood flooded the uninsulated bills during hot weather.

The toucan's large, colorful, iconic beak actually has a surprising purpose: it cools down the bird’s body.

By Weckstein, Jason D ABSTRACT.- I reconstructed the phylogeny of 12 Ramphastos toucan taxa using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences.