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The black-chinned hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) is the bird species known to have the smallest genome among birds, which is only 0.91 Gb long.The genomic evolution of birds has come under scrutiny since the advent of rapid DNA sequencing, as birds have the smallest genomes of the amniotes despite acquiring highly derived phenotypic traits.
This is a result of the same genetic mutation as the genuine Blue genetic mutation in all typical parrot and parakeet species. Consequently, White-faced cockatiels are mainly grey with more or less white throughout their plumage. White-faced cocks display brilliant white faces while hens display basically grey faces with some white streaks.
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.
Other birds have been placed in this order more out of necessity to place them somewhere; this has caused the expanded Gruiformes to lack distinctive apomorphies. Recent studies indicate that these "odd Gruiformes" are if at all only loosely related to the cranes, rails, and relatives ("core Gruiformes").
Passerines, the "song birds". This is the largest order of birds and contains more than half of all birds. Family Acanthisittidae. Genus Acanthisitta - rifleman; Genus Xenicus - New Zealand wrens; Family Acanthizidae - scrubwrens, thornbills, and gerygones Genus Acanthiza – thornbill; Genus Acanthornis – scrubtit; Genus Aethomyias ...
For instance, Wetmore put them in a superorder by themselves, with all other non-ratite birds in a different superorder. Sibley and Ahlquist, though, put penguins in the same superfamily as divers (loons), tubenoses, and frigatebirds. According to their phylogenetic analysis, penguins are closer to those birds than herons are to storks. [3]
The level of divergence is the highest of any genus of birds, being more typical of the divergence between genera or even families. The northern potoo was for a long time considered to be the same species as the common potoo, but the two species have now been separated on the basis of their calls. In spite of this there is no morphological way ...
The family Threskiornithidae includes 36 species of large wading birds. The family has been traditionally classified into two subfamilies, the ibises and the spoonbills; however recent genetic studies have cast doubt on this arrangement, and have found the spoonbills to be nested within the Old World ibises, and the New World ibises as an early offshoot.