What is the purpose of heterodactyl feet? (1 Viewer)

[birdies754]

Trogons supposedly have very weak feet, and they don't seem weight efficient either. Both anisodactyl and zygodactyl seem superior to heterodactyl, so why would trogons evolve heterodactyl feet from an ancestor with anisodactyl feet?

Thanks.

 

[fugl]

Perhaps, it's just one of those things? It started that way with the ur-Trogon and continued to the present among its descendants, there being no particular reason to change, first and second being as effective an arrangement as first and fourth. The Trogons are an ancient clade of ordinal rank so heterodactyly presumably goes way back. The fact that the feet of the modern species are "weak" needn't have any connection with heterodactyly as such.

But just guesswork on my part. With luck someone will come along soon with expert knowledge. . ..