Could these serrations have been used in ectoparasite control?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

On the other hand, a ectoparasite is a disproportionate burden for an act of love.    From Wordnik.com.  [Libertarian Blog Place] Reference

But the two ‘explanations’ aren’t mutually exclusive, as the teeth could still have been important in ectoparasite control.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

Influence of bill shape on ectoparasite load in Western scrub-jays.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

Adaptive significance of avian beak morphology for ectoparasite control.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

Or is there a connection with hippoboscid flies, a common ectoparasite of birds?.    From Wordnik.com.  [BIRDS ETCETERA—Birds, Birding, Birders, and Birdwatching] Reference

Could those little premaxillary teeth have been specialized for ectoparasite control?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

A feather with possible ectoparasite eggs from the Crato Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Aptian) of Brazil.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

Response to Vanewimsey: good point, but do note statements in the post that ectoparasite control might be ONE OF the bill's most important functions, not THE most important function.    From Wordnik.com.  [The war on parasites: a pigeon’s eye view] Reference

It is clear (I made the point a few times in the previous post) that ectoparasite control is one of the bill's functions, but it does not follow that bills evolved for ectoparasite control.    From Wordnik.com.  [The war on parasites: an oviraptorosaur’s eye view] Reference

Other Parasites - The wallow and its resulting mud cake seem to protect water buffalo from many biting flies, but the main ectoparasite in Australia and Southeast Asia is the buffalo fly (Siphona spp.).    From Wordnik.com.  [7 Health] Reference

In the previous post we saw how avian bill morphology is crucial to the control of parasites, an assertion that comes from recent studies of bill shape and ectoparasite control in scrub-jays, pigeons and numerous Neotropical bird species.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

In Dinosaurs of the Air Greg Paul illustrated a Sinosauropteryx scratching in order to remove ectoparasites, and the cover of The Dinosauria, Second Edition (the current industry-standard volume on dinosaurs) features a Sinosauropteryx (this time by Mark Hallett) nibbling at its proto-feathers, again presumably as a form of ectoparasite control.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

"As the first sequenced genome of a permanent vertebrate ectoparasite", says Zdobnov.    From Wordnik.com.  [EurekAlert! - Breaking News] Reference

As the name indicates, however, this species is an ectoparasite upon the gills, and Stein gave the name.    From Wordnik.com.  [Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901] Reference

And with it only taking about two weeks for the mite to go through its life-cycle, producers must act quickly and treat for the correct ectoparasite.    From Wordnik.com.  [FWi - All News] Reference

Future analyses are needed to determine whether the most recent common ancestor of the Thecostraca was free-living or some primitive form of ectoparasite.    From Wordnik.com.  [BioMed Central - Latest articles] Reference

This is one of the first attempts to define specific genes involved in GST mediated acaricide resistance at the transcriptional level, and the first application of such studies to S. scabiei, a historically challenging ectoparasite.    From Wordnik.com.  [BioMed Central - Latest articles] Reference

The main goal of the CVBD World Forum is to exchange knowledge and findings about ectoparasite-pathogen-host interaction as well as the characterisation and assessment of the distribution of pathogens and vectors in order to increase awareness for the specific regional risks of CVBD and to foster preventative measures.    From Wordnik.com.  [Presseportal] Reference

(3) premaxillary and/or dentary-tip teeth were retained - even when not essential to foraging or feeding - as they were used in ectoparasite control.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

But I don’t think anyone’s really married data on Mesozoic birds and other theropods with the new work of Dale Clayton and colleagues on ectoparasite control in extant birds.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference

I’m far from the first person to look at Mesozoic feathered theropods this way – many other people have mentioned these ideas before, and artists have even illustrated ectoparasite control in dinosaurs.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-07-01] Reference