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The evolution of birds began in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from a clade of theropod dinosaurs named Paraves. [1] Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves. For more than a century, the small theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx lithographica from the Late Jurassic period was considered to have been the earliest bird.
Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species ...
A turning point came in the early twentieth century with the writings of Gerhard Heilmann of Denmark.An artist by trade, Heilmann had a scholarly interest in birds and from 1913 to 1916, expanding on earlier work by Othenio Abel, [12] published the results of his research in several parts, dealing with the anatomy, embryology, behavior, paleontology, and evolution of birds. [13]
Gigantism in birds tends to be insular; however, a ten-million-year-long window of opportunity for evolution of avian gigantism on continents may have existed following the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, in which ratites were able to fill vacant herbivorous niches before mammals attained large size. [9]
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Images of the great auk have been found in bone necklaces. [ 21 ] : 36 A person buried at the Maritime Archaic site at Port au Choix , Newfoundland , dating to about 2000 BC, was found surrounded by more than 200 great auk beaks, which are believed to have been part of a suit made from their skins, with the heads left attached as decoration. [ 49 ]
Palaeognathae (/ ˌ p æ l i ˈ ɒ ɡ n ə θ i /; from Ancient Greek παλαιός (palaiós) 'old' and γνάθος (gnáthos) 'jaw') is an infraclass of birds, called paleognaths or palaeognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria.
Subfossil remains and remnants of the birds that were brought to Europe in the 17th century show that dodos were very large birds, measuring about 62.6–75 cm (24.6–29.5 in) in height. [37] [38] The bird was sexually dimorphic; males were larger and had proportionally longer beaks. Weight estimates have varied from study to study.