  Taxonomy of radio pulsar profiles is mostly based on a system of Ptolemaic
artificiality, consisting of separated rings and a core, arbitrarily located at
disparate altitudes in the magnetosphere. Diversity of observed profile shapes
clearly exceeds the interpretive capability of such conal model. Moreover,
bifurcated features observed in pulsar profiles imply a system of fan beams
radially extending away from the dipole axis. The bifurcations can be
understood as the imprint of the elementary radiation pattern of the
long-sought radio emission mechanism, thus identifying the latter. Their size,
however, is several times larger than implied by the curvature of magnetic
dipole lines. Here I show that the illusion of disconnected rings and the size
of bifurcated features can be explained through a natural geometry which
combines the properties of both the cone and the fan beam. It is a flaring
spiral which makes several revolutions around the dipole axis on its way to
leave the magnetosphere. Such geometry is consistent with a stream of
outflowing and laterally drifting plasma. The bifurcated components are so
wide, because the curvature on such a spiral is larger than that of the dipolar
magnetic field, hence they are consistent with the extraordinary mode curvature
radiation.
