“…The claws also aid in many essential activities of birds, including food procurement and handling, perching and locomotion, and nest construction. The basic structure of the claw includes a bony terminal phalanx covered by a thin layer of connective tissue, a basement membrane, and the actively growing layer of the epidermis, which underlies dorsal and ventral plates of hard‐cornified epidermis (Lucas and Stettenheim,1972; Stettenheim,2000; Homberger et al,2009). Claws have been the subject of extensive study for their proposed role in evolution of flight (Yalden,1985; Feduccia,1993; Glen and Bennett,2007).…”