Claws and talons are the curved, pointy structures that grow from the tips of an animal’s digits, and there’s not much difference.
Both are made of a tough protein called keratin (as are hooves and toenails) and are used variously for catching prey, climbing trees and fighting off predators and rivals.
What's the difference between claws and talons?
Whether we call a talon a claw, or a claw a talon, has more to do with convention than biology. While ‘claws’ is a catch-all term for curved, pointy bits on the ends of the limbs of any animal (including invertebrates such as crabs and scorpions), we tend to reserve ‘talons’ for the ones wielded by the predatory birds known collectively as raptors – eagles, hawks, falcons and owls.
The only other claws that are routinely called talons are those belonging to predatory dinosaurs. As it happens, the members of one family, the Dromaeosauridae, are also commonly known as ‘raptors’, after the most well-known member, the Velociraptor (likely related to one of the smartest dinosaurs). Which is appropriate, given that Dromaeosaurids are closely related to the earliest birds.
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Main image: talons of an eagle/Getty