This is of course in addition to the many many other species dying across the globe these days-manatees on the coasts birds all over fish and crabs all over.
At some point a chicken-like bird produced an offspring that due to some mutation in its DNA crossed the threshold from mere chicken likeness into chicken actuality.
Many characteristics of the modern avian egg namely an oblong asymmetrical shape and a hardened shell were in place before birds diverged from dinosaurs about 150 million years ago.
A lot of the traits that we see in bird eggs evolved prior to birds in theropod dinosaurs says Darla Zelenitsky of the University of Calgary.
You still see that in birds crocodilians and snakes he explains. Like other placental mammals we humans lost our yolk somewhere along the line
At some point a chicken-like bird produced an offspring that due to some mutation in its DNA crossed the threshold from mere chicken likeness into chicken actuality.
'And the bird made chicken walked among the avians who knew it not'is a much more poetic way of saying the same darn thing.
and that a pre-chicken bird was changed genetically enviromentally to the point where it entered that spectrum of chicken dna.
All that is needed is for the more chicken like birds to out-breed the rest over generations
Domesticated birds were interbred with wild birds to create a new species called chicken. So God did not create chickens.
People and horny birds did. Goo came first then life came from goo and then for
so its going to have to settle with a member of another already existing species. This is an unavoidable roadblock for evolution this new bird's genetic material is added merely to that of an existing species where evolution requires it branches off on it's own.
At some point a chicken-like bird produced an offspring that due to some mutation in its DNA crossed the threshold from mere chicken likeness into chicken actuality.
#Are Birds Evolving To Not Get Hit By Cars? If you've ever had the soul-crushing misfortune of hitting a bird
while speeding down the road you can at least take heart in the fact that some birds are on the whole getting better at dodging them.
A new paper published today in the journal Current Biology theorizes that today's natural predators (like the Ford f-150) are causing birds to adapt.
Every year for the past 30 years researchers have been acting like urban Darwins observing cliff swallows in Nebraska
The researchers tracked birds who've died by car and then compared them to birds who accidentally died some other way.
They've found that during the last three decades the swallows have been dying less by car
and it's not caused by the number of birds in the area or number of cars on the road.
the shorter-winged birds may be able to turn and take off faster than their counterparts avoiding oncoming traffic.
I believe the term they were looking for was natural selection. obviously the animals smart enough to not get hit by cars would be selected the ones for based on the new environment the birds live in currently.
If those birds are quicker--maybe by shorter wings or smarter then they survive and the others get hit by cars
The birds that did not change are dead. Therefore less birds will be hit every year and only evolved
or changed birds will pass on to future generations. Honestly the moment we found out that DNA does not make perfect copies that was all the proof we needed for evolution.
Obviously if you keep changing a creature little by little in random ways there is no limit to the number of variations
Micro Evolution is an adaptation within a species where unique characteristics of each bird will
The bird is still a bird only able to reproduce after it's own kind.
The way this article writes it It sounds more like scientists observed that birds with shorter wings spans are less likely to get hit by cars than birds with longer wingspans.
birds before 150 million years ago flowers before 130 million years ago modern humans before 200000 years ago The fossil record clearly shows life becoming more and more complex over Earth's history.
or for playing Angry Birds yet it is the same processor all our brains may each have these abilities.
unless a bird crapped on it. And then what toilet facilities do farm labourers have? Who must you blame
By the way there are trillions of different critters bugs bacteria virus yeast and molds in the environment and yes birds bugs and animals dodo on our food too.
Dahl said it would take 501 birds to do the job: I shall simply go on hooking them up to the stem until we have enough to lift us.
For a peach of the dimensions calculated it would not be possible to fly such a heavy object with the assistance of such a diminutive number of birds they conclude.
Considering the quantity of Gulls that peach should be covered completely like icing on a cake with bird do do lol!
Bird and whale migrations have been changing. They're coming later then they used to. We knew from this that climate change was here before the term was introduced to us in English.
and the birds may have carried the Lone Star tick with them. A rising deer population may also explain the tick s spread as they are also big carriers of the parasites.
These birds find baldness a virtue not a curse because the adaptation allows the south-of-the-equator poultry to throw off additional body heat
mapping the birds gene sequences in order to determine the best approach for getting those good heat-resistant genes into American chickens without taking along all the genetic baggage as Schmidt calls it that s unnecessary to duplicate in the hybrid chickens.
and South american poultry they hope American producers will crossbreed them to North american birds. It could take around 10 generations of chickens carefully bred to arrive at new heat-resistant breeds that can successfully reproduce on their own.
but be reminded that these birds are in fact dino descendants and to hear their depraved calls--hauntingly doleful
#John Steinbeck On Why'Camping Is For The Birds'Earlier this month we published John Steinbeck's 1966 letter to the editor of Popular Science in
In the essay below titled Camping Is For The Birds Steinbeck contrasts the idyllic imagery of motorhome advertisements (A glowing wife is cooking something delicious
or Jordan or Mozambique hen it is possible it is already in Latin america. Only time will tell. n
#Scientists Rank World's Most'Evolutionarily Distinct'Birdsis a bird more worth saving from extinction if it is evolutionarily unique as well as physically rare?
That's one challenging question raised by newly published research that factors together the distinct evolutionary history of the world's bird species with how healthy their population numbers
Arne Mooers a professor of biodiversity at Canada's Simon Fraser University and colleagues worked for seven years to assess how much evolutionary history a specific bird represents compared to other bird species currently alive.
In order to do it the team developed an evolutionary tree containing all 9993 known bird species says Mooers
They then ranked the birds by how much of that work each accounted for. The species that top the list go back furthest in evolutionary history and share that history with few or no living relatives.
The research also sets evolutionary distinctness against the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List ranking the 575 bird species considered threatened
when trying to figure out how to allocate resources to saving endangered bird species. The team has created also a compound metric that sets a bird's evolutionary uniqueness against how widely it can be found in the world.
which has the widest range of any bird in the world says Mooers. Or you could have something like a kiwi or a kakapo which only lives in one place.
because when it started there was no single overarching analysis or evolutionary tree of bird evolution.
But there is no single perfect tree of birds. So we had to do this over we had to create many millions of possible trees
The project has already put the research to work with its list of Top 100 EDGE Birds that are at risk of extinction.
Click here for a gallery of some of the world's most evolutionarily unique birds including some of the most endangered e
and how trees and birds react. Scienceinsider Nature News
#Has The Reintroduction Of Wolves Really Saved Yellowstone? The story goes something like this: Once upon a time we exterminated the wolves from the Rocky mountain West including the part that would become Yellowstone national park.
but by say all the shorter-beaked birds being killed then the whole body would come to have longer beaks.
and another 1000 in a cold country and fed on different food and confined in different-size aviary
I hear has been lecturing on birds; and admits that all have descended from one and advances as his own idea that the oceanic wingless birds have lost their wings by gradual disuse.
He never alludes to me or only with bitter sneers and coupled with Buffon and the Vestiges.
These results indicate a shift from the standard bird knee-driven bipedal locomotion to a more hip-driven locomotion typical of crocodilians (the only other extant archosaur group) mammals
But what we discovered was flapping-wing birds and insects are suited perfectly for environments where you have dynamic obstructions he trees are moving the branches are moving.
and why birds can't taste them and we even know the gene that could turn it on and off Van Deynze tells Popular Science.
The researchers are studying effects on coastal insects and birds; whether the change will affect coastal ecosystems'ability to store carbon;
#Evolution of plumage patterns in male and female birdsresearch published today looks at the evolutionary pathways to differences in bird plumage patterns between males
and females--and concludes that birds are able to adapt their appearance with remarkable ease.
Hens pheasants partridges and turkeys are game-birds (Galliformes. Both orders are famous not just for their flesh but also for their striking and elaborate plumages
--and focuses on patterning between male and female birds rather than colour. She said: The colour of plumage has attracted much research interest
but the exquisite patterns of bird plumage such as the spots of the guinea fowl and the barred patterns of ducks and turkeys to just name a few have received much less attention.
Since the 1980s differences in the appearances of male and female birds have been seen through a prism of genetic correlation.
In other words it was thought that female birds may have evolved similar patterning to males due to common genes but that female patterns would be lost subsequently as it is not beneficial.
It was argued that male birds developed their spectacular colours and elaborate patterning as a result of their mating patterns--they used their plumage to compete for
On the other hand female birds needed to blend into their surroundings in order to nest safely and protect their young--so they became drab and dull to protect themselves
My research looked at the plumage patterns of male and female birds on a separate and equal basis
and female birds have the capacity to change between different types of patterns. What's interesting is to consider what are the forces driving these changes in male and female plumage patterns
and/or whether they have a signalling function between birds of different sexes or within the same sex.
In her study of patterning Gluckman looked at the variations between the sexes of the same species and across species in order to build a picture of the pathways to similarity and differences between male and female bird plumage patterns.
Birds exhibit a fabulous number of variations and combinations of these visual patterns in females as well as males.
By emphasising similarities as well as differences in plumage patterns between male and female birds rather than
I found that sexual dimorphism in the plumage pattern of birds is nuanced highly and that there can be multiple types of sexual dimorphism.
In addition the plumage patterns of birds seem to transition easily between different types of dimorphism
if native bark-foraging birds including woodpeckers and nuthatches were feeding on the emerald ash borer.
They hoped that unlike other exotic invasive species which run amok in new regions because of the lack of predators to keep them in check the emerald ash borer might meet its match in native predators--bark foraging birds like the woodpecker and nuthatch.
the numbers of the predator in this case woodpeckers and other bark foraging birds increase either because they were moving into the area
and the white-breasted nuthatch the important bark foraging birds in this region increased as the emerald ash borer increased.
But that study examined the bird population response and didn't tell you what the birds were doing there said Flower.
With the numerical response they found and the functional response we found we have really powerful evidence of the potential of the woodpeckers
and wetlands are required certainly simply to ensure healthy populations of birds like the stone curlew as well as to sustain a wide range of endangered plants.
or Triceratops. Of course it's hard to tell what that cocks comb might have done for the duck-billed dinosaurs.
In roosters and some other birds bright red crests are a way to get the girls.
Two of the species feed primarily on the blood of birds and one--the common vampire bat D. rotundus--prefers mammals especially livestock.
#Bird is the word--plus some side dish science! While the word thanks is included in our country's favorite holiday's name we all know the real star of the day is the food.
#¢An organic turkey simply means that the bird has met the standards for USDA Organic certification including an organic diet
#¢Wild turkeys are birds that were domesticated not or fed by humans--they're essentially hunted for the meal.
In contrast free range turkeys are birds that are confined not to a cage but were allowed to roam and forage.
Plus in our sites it is dispersed bird which means it gets around and is in fact moving into the sites at a frightening rate.
The drawings depict an assemblage of animals including armadillos deer large cats birds and reptiles as well as humanlike figures and geometric symbols.
#Early bird catches the worm--for dinnerbirds such as great and blue tits scout for food in the morning
This'early bird'strategy was revealed by a team studying the winter foraging behaviour of birds in Wytham Woods near Oxford (UK).
) The researchers fitted over 2000 birds with tiny PIT radio tags. They then used 101 feeders
and captured the exact time individual birds found each feeder. By moving 36 of these feeders around the forest throughout the day and recording the results the team showed that birds gathered information about new food sources during the morning
so that they can then eat it later in the day. The birds studied were a mixture of great tits (Parus major) blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) marsh tits (Poecile palustris) coal tits (Periparus ater) and nuthatches (Sitta europaea.
A report of the research is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters this week.'
'Birds have to store body-fat to avoid starving during the cold winter nights but this can make them slower
'So there is a trade-off where birds need to remain lean enough in order to'outrun'their predators
or at least the next slowest bird during the day but also store enough fat to survive each night.'
when the predation risk appears high birds delay putting on fat until late in the day.
The researchers wanted to test the idea that instead of simply'idly waiting'until the afternoon birds were actively seeking out new sources of food to work out where their next meal was coming from.'
and other common garden birds balance the competing risks of predation and starvation'said Damien Farine.'
'Our results show that these birds display very different patterns of food discovery in the morning and afternoon;
It supports the idea of an'early bird'strategy of scouting for food early on so that they can return to feast a couple of hours before dusk in preparation for a long winter's night.'
'Winter is a tough time for small garden birds as not only is there less natural food available
The short days and long cold nights mean that small birds can lose around 10%of their body weight over a single night
'Because small birds can't reproduce without surviving the winter they have evolved a complex set of behaviours that enables them to maximise their chance of both surviving predators
and birds including some of the most charismatic species in existence like tigers. Many of these species are exceedingly good at spotting
Israel Finkelstein and Dr. Meirav Meiri of Tel aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near east Civilizations together with Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen from the same department and Dr
As well as helping to feed these birds YPC could partially replace the fish meal used on commercial fish farms.
Phenology is the study of seasonal life cycle events such as bird and butterfly migrations seed-setting by plants and the emergence of animals--including ants--from winter dormancy.
Madidi National park alone contains 11 percent of the world's birds more than 200 species of mammals 300 types of fish and 12000 plant varieties.
and DDE contribute to eggshell thinning in several bird species and are toxic to fish shellfish and other organisms.
When birds and small mammals feed on the fruit they subsequently excrete the indigestible seeds elsewhere
For example fragmentation reduces the availability of interior forest habitat that is preferred by many bird species. There are also a number of large predators such as big cats like the tiger
which contains an estimated one percent of the world's biodiversity including 20 lemur species hundreds of species of birds
'For biodiversity simple measures such as setting artificial nest boxes for bats and birds may if guided by research help bring some species back to the numbers found in unlogged areas'he said.
which are more acutely toxic to birds and mammals with uses that include home insect control insect-repellant clothing dog and cat flea shampoos mosquito control and agriculture.
A profusion of tree and plant species as well as one third of Peru's mammal bird and frog species make their home in these perennially wet regions located along the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains.
#Influenza virus in wild birds in Norwayducks and gulls are the natural hosts of Influenza a virus.
Wild birds particularly ducks and gulls are the natural hosts for Influenza a viruses which can cause disease in animals and humans.
of which the majority have been found in wild birds. Most subtypes of Influenza a virus cause subclinical infections in wild birds.
Infections in domestic chickens most commonly result in mild disease. In rare cases if introduced from wild birds to poultry some viruses of the H5
and H7 subtypes mutate and become highly pathogenic. One example of this is the highly pathogenic H5n1 virus in Southeast asia known to cause#oebird flu#.
#Due to the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5n1 in Southeast asia a programme to monitor influenza viruses in wild birds in Norway was initiated in 2005.
The results showed that the genes of the Norwegian viruses resembled the genes found in influenza viruses from other wild birds in Europe.
Due to limited overlap between the routes used by migratory birds in Eurasia and America influenza viruses with different genetic material have developed between these two continents.
and she discovered that more than 70%of the adult birds had developed antibodies against Influenza a virus. The majority of the kittiwakes had antibodies against an influenza virus subtype typically found in gulls namely H16.
Ducks can become infected with influenza virus through consumption of surface water contaminated with faeces shed by virus infected birds.
#Pest-eating birds mean money for coffee growersthis is the first time scientists have assigned a monetary value to the pest-control benefits rainforest birds can provide to agriculture.
In recent years Stanford biologists have found that coffee growers in Costa rica bolster bird biodiversity by leaving patches of their plantations as untouched rainforest.
The latest finding from these researchers suggests that the birds are returning the favor to farmers by eating an aggressive coffee bean pest the borer beetle thereby improving coffee bean yields by hundreds of dollars per hectare.
and thus a greater biodiversity of insect-eating birds fared better under attack from the insects.
A'not-so-glamorous'experimentto quantify the benefit birds provide to plantations the researchers first calculated coffee bean yield--the amount of healthy beetle-free beans that could be harvested--of infected plants that were housed in bird-proof cages
versus yield from infected plants in the open where birds were eating the beetles. Next they needed to confirm
which species of birds were eating the beetles and whether the birds required forest to survive.
This required a more unorthodox approach. We had the not-so-glamorous task of collecting the birds'poop
and then taking it back to Stanford and looking through the DNA within it to learn which birds were the pest preventers Karp said.
Five species of birds contributed to cutting infestation rates in half and these birds were more abundant on farms featuring more forests.
Depending on the season the birds provide $75 to $310 increases in yield per hectare of farmland Karp said.
The birds'activity could become even more valuable if the beetle infestation worsens. The scientists found that the closer the forests were to the farms the greater benefit the birds provided.
Specifically smaller stands of trees--roughly the size of a few football fields--situated throughout crop fields provided better levels of beetle protection than the much larger forest preserves set on the outskirts of farms.
By differentiating the financial gains of different conservation strategies--large but distant preserves versus small local stands of trees--Karp thinks the study could provide a framework for introducing similar efforts in agricultural zones around the world.
This work suggests that it might be economically advantageous to not farm in certain areas of a plantation Karp said.
while other species that rely on dispersal by birds or wind first arrived a couple of thousand years later.
In fact there are probably as many beetle species living in dung as there are bird species on this planet.
The researchers compared the differences between the two sets of sequences to reconstruct how the H7n9 virus evolved through various species of birds
Given these results the authors write continued surveillance of influenza viruses in birds remains essential.
#Forest-interior birds may be benefiting from harvested clearingsefforts to conserve declining populations of forest-interior birds have focused largely on preserving the mature forests where birds breed
may be vital to birds as they prepare for fall migration. The study suggests that declines in forest-interior species may be due in part to the increasing maturity and homogenization of forests.
Openings created by timber harvesting may increase habitat for some forest interior birds according to Stoleson.
On four sites on the Allegheny National Forest and private timber inholdings in northeastern Pennsylvania Stoleson set out to learn where the birds spend time after breeding season and
After the breeding season birds sing less stop defending territory and generally wander. Tracking them is challenging at this point in their life cycle Stoleson said.
and the extent of parasites the birds carried. In 217 days of netting birds over the course of the 4-year study Stoleson netted
and banded a total of 3845 individuals. Of these 2021 individuals representing 46 species were in the postbreeding stage based on physiological criteria.
Stoleson's research concluded birds'use of young forest in the postbreeding season is correlated with better physiological condition for some forest birds
and a dozen other crocodile species enjoy an occasional taste of fruit along with their normal meat-heavy diets of mammals birds and fish.
#Honeyguide birds destroy own species eggs to eliminate competitionlike cuckoos honeyguides are parasitic birds that lay their eggs in other birds'nests
and those of their bee-eater bird hosts hasn't evolved to trick hosts into accepting the imposter egg as one of their own.
Honeyguides are intriguingly odd birds that are best-known for their unique mutually beneficial relationship with humans.
But these African birds also have a dark side. They are unusually vicious parasites whose imposter chicks stab the chicks of their host birds (often little bee-eaters) to death
as soon as they hatch in order to eliminate competition for the host parents'care. The newly published research has shown that this fight for monopoly of the nest also extends to other honeyguides in a battle conducted deep underground in the nest burrows that bee-eaters dig into the roofs of Aardvark holes.
It forms part of a wider research programme investigating coevolution between parasitic birds and their hosts in Zambia led by Dr Claire Spottiswoode who adds My colleagues and
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