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Seeds Saved Birds from the Dinosaur Extinction

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The fossils of several feathered non-avian Maniraptoran dinosaurs

While the reason behind the extinction of the dinosaurs is a generally known fact, it was only in a recent study that we found out that the giant reptiles that ruled out planet in the past had been on the decline for some fifty million years before they went extinct.

This had to do with more than a single factor, as volcanic eruptions, the separation of the continents, and on-going climate change caused by billions of tons of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere all contributed to the dinosaurs’ slow but certain decline. But that’s not to say that had the asteroid not hit the dinosaurs would have still been extinct.

Oh no, they would likely have still been around today, only in a much different form than the one to which we are used. This is even proven by the fact that there are still members of the theropod class of dinosaurs still alive today. And yes, I am talking about birds.

But seeing as they evolved from dinosaurs that were alive sixty-six million years ago, how exactly did they manage to evolve? Well, according to a recent study from the Universities of Toronto and Alberta, seeds saved birds from the dinosaur extinction. Well, not birds as we know them today, but maniraptoran dinosaurs, a clave of small carnivorous theropods that largely resembled today’s birds.

So if the modern day birds’ ancestors were carnivorous and they were alive when the asteroid hit, how is it that we still have birds, and what did seeds have to do with anything? Well, as the climate was changing, as the dinosaurs were dying off, and as the sunlight was covered by a cloud of ash, food was beginning to be very scarce.

While meat was getting rarer and rarer, and plants couldn’t really photosynthesize with no sunlight, one of the very few sources of food remaining were seeds. Buried in the ground and viable for consumption for up to five decades, the dinosaurs that wanted to survive had to adapt to their new conditions.

Of course, larger dinosaurs couldn’t really survive on just seeds, so the smaller, carnivorous, toothed maniraptorans had to combine their meaty diet with plenty of seeds. Over time, they evolved so that they lost their teeth and started eating mostly seeds and other creatures smaller than them, eventually reaching the form of today’s birds.

One of the biggest problems with identifying that particular class of dinosaurs was that their bones were very fragile. So, it’s a very common occurrence for the only fossils encountered by scientists to be the teeth, as they tended to be stronger than the regular bones. This made it quite hard for the team to actually find out when maniraptorans evolved into birds, even if they tried to reverse engineer the process by following the birds’ ancestors instead of the dinosaurs’ descendants.

Image source: Wikimedia

The Truth About The Penguins That Have Disappeared In Antarctica

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Adélie Penguin group on an iceberg in Antarctica.

All the internet pages are rumoring about their death, but the truth about the penguins that have dissapeared in Antarctica sounds a little bit different. As terrible as the news may appear at first glance, there’s no proof yet that the birds are dead.

What reasearchers sustain is that a colony of Adélie penguins in Antartica’s Cape Denison has decreased from 160,000 to just 10,000 since 2011, when a huge iceberg ominously named B09B became grounded in nearby Commonwealth Bay. These reports stated that the iceberg, which is close to the size of Rhode Island, had crippled the penguins’ food supply, effectively stranding them and leaving them to die.

But is this really true? Because no one has actually found 150,000 frozen penguins. There is, however, another theory in line: the colonies are doing just fine, which indicates that rather than having starved to death, the penguins could have simply moved to another home.

Usually, when the fishing gets tough, penguins simply pick up and move. It wouldn’t be the first time Adélie penguins marched to new digs. When an iceberg grounded in the southern Ross Sea in 2001, penguins on Ross Island relocated to nearby colonies until the ice broke up.

Michelle LaRue, a penguin population researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis adds credibility to the explanation:

Just because there are a lot fewer birds observed doesn’t automatically mean the ones that were there before have perished.

She also pointed out that the penguins easily could have moved elsewhere, which would make sense if nearby colonies were thriving.

However, the study on the iceberg’s impact on the Adelie penguins can provide scientists understanding into the broader implications on the impact brought about by an increasing sea ice in the area. Continuing environmental changes are anticipated for the Southern Ocean, which will possibly have an impact into predatory marine animals, as per a 2015 report.

Moreover, ecological changes due to climate change could stimulate major changes in the breeding habitats of the animals, the food source in a marine ecosystem and the accessibility of prey for bigger predators.

The continuing melting of glaciers or deglaciation, plays a key role in the decline of Adelie penguins’ population over the past 1,000 years, affirmed the scientists. While changes in sea ice can directly have an impact into the species, it is crucial to keep on monitoring the penguins’ population over a longer period of time.

All in all, the good news is that the Adelie penguins are probably just fine – they just decided to change the scenery, by moving to another home.

Image Source: wordpress.com.

Researcher Proves: Birds and Turtles Once Had Teeths.

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At last, a new research unveils the reason why birds have teeth instead of beaks.  The report demonstrates that birds lost its teeth nearly 116 million years ago.

Scientists discovered that Archaeopteryx which is the ancestor of the modern bird once had a set of teeth. The remnants of the bird found from Germany shows that birds emerged from tooth reptiles.  The fossil became the basis of the entire research.

Afterwards, researchers tried to figure out the reason behind the loss of teeth.  They closely analyzed the genetic structure of the birds in order to find out the reason.

Later on, the study shows that the genetic mutation in the birds is responsible for the loss of teeth. The scientists informed that six genes in birds give birth to teeth in birds.

Generally, these genes form enamel and dentin in vertebrates. Enamel is the outer side of the tooth, whereas dentin is the material present inside the tooth.  Enamel is relatively stronger as compared to the dentin.  The end of the production of enamel is the chief reason of the loss of teeth.

However, these six genes are inactive in modern birds.  Surprisingly, birds are not the only one that lost teeth. A few other mammals such as turtle, whales and pangolins also lost teeth. These animals developed other means of feeding as a substitute of teeth.

Mark Springer, one of the main researchers of the report stated that the presence of these inactive mutation propose the birds lost teeth nearly 116 million years ago.

Research Reveals: Why Birds Have Beak Instead of Teeth?

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A group of researchers strived hard to determine the reason why birds have no teeth. The study divulges that birds lost their teeth around 166 million years ago.

The biologists of the UC Riverside along with researchers of the Montclair State University carried out the study. The researchers used the remnants of 48 tooth genes in birds to find the exact time period when birds lost teeth. The report confirms that modern birds are originated from toothed ancestors.

Mark Springer, main author of the study informs that dead genes of birds gave an insight regarding the teeth of bird. It revealed that beak is a kind of characteristics of modern bird.  The team of experts claims that the common ancestor of birds is theropod dinosaur. It symbolizes the toothless and enamel-less vertebrates in birds.

Moreover, the study reveals that modern birds usually use beaks to grind food. The process is a part of their digestive tract.

The development of teeth in vertebrates is a pretty complicate procedure that involves several genes. Among the entire gene, six genes play a vital role in the formation of the enamel and dentin. However, these genes are inactive in most of the modern birds.

In a nutshell, the research proposes that the genetic system required for the creation of teeth was lost in the ancestor of birds.

The study is printed in 12th December’s edition of Journal Science

Scientist Catches Puppy Sized Spider

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Piotr Naskrecki, a wildlife photographer was taking a night walk in the Guyana’s rainforest and suddenly heard a rustling sound like something was creeping under his feet. Eventually, when he turned around with his flashlight on, he saw a puppy-sized animal rustling around. The excitement uttered, when he found the creature turned out to be a Goliath spider. “When I turned on the flashlight, I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing,” Naskrecki, from Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, stated.

Goliath Spider, also known as the South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi), is supposedly the world’s largest spider as per the Guinness World Records. The leg span of this huge arachnid spider can reach up to a foot 30 centimeters, or about the size of “a child’s forearm,” with a body the size of “a large fist,” Naskrecki claimed. Moreover, the spider can weigh more than 6 oz. (170 grams) about as much as a young puppy, the scientist further explained.

Prickly hairs and 2-inch Fangs

Goliath spider has massive sharp fangs, which could inflict deep wounds, though the venom of the Goliath bird eating spider isn’t deadly to humans. “I found that it was rubbing its hind legs against its abdomen- an action,” Naskrecki stated. But afterwards, he realized the spider was sending out a cloud of hairs with microscopic barbs on them. It has been known that when these hairs get in the eyes or other mucous membranes, they can turn out to be “extremely painful and itchy,” and can stay there for days, he said.

Bird eater or mostly harmless?

Naskrecki told that, regardless of its name, the birdeater doesn’t usually eat birds, though it is certainly capable of killing small mammals. They will essentially attack anything that they encounter. Usually, the Goliath spider hunts at night, and feeds on small animals including insects, frogs and earthworms. These spiders are also hard to find. “I’ve been working in the tropics in South America for almost the past 15 years, but I only saw the spider three times,” he added.

WWF Report Shows How The Last 40 Years Affected The Population Of Wildlife: Report

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According to the recent reports of WWF (World Wide Fund), the population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles chop down by 52% within 1970 to 2010, which believes to be far faster than ever thought.

On the other hand, the report of conservation group’s Living Planet, published every 2 years, stated that, the demands of human kinds are increased by 50%, which seems more than that the nature bears, trees felled, ground water pumped, CO2 emissions increased more than the Earth can bear (Reuters).

Ken Norris (Director of Science at the Zoological Society of London) stated, “This huge damage is not foreseeable, though the outcome of the way we choose to live.”

Moreover, the report stated that we can still cope with this situation if politicians and businesses took the right actions to save nature.

International Director of WWF, General Marco Lambertini stated, “It’s quite vital that we grab the opportunity in order to develop a sustainable future where people could live and prosper in harmony with nature.”

He further stated that we can’t preserve the nature by only protecting wild places, though it’s also about conservation of the humanity’s future, indeed, our only way to survive.

The major declines were in tropical regions, especially Latin America, report results on the populations of vertebrate wildlife discovered. WWF, which believes to be a “Living Planet Index”, is relying on the trends in 10,380 populations of 3,038 mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian and fish species.

WWF told, the average 52% decline is much larger than the previously published reports, partially because these studies has based on more readily accessible information from Europe & North-America. According to the same report published 2 years back, stated the decline of 28% within 1970 to 2008.

Certainly, the worst decline was believed to be amongst the population of fresh water species, which is declined to 76% till 2010. On the other hand, marine and terrestrial decline is by 39%.

The report stated that, the major reason for the decline in populations happened due to the loss of natural habitats, exploitation due to hunting and fishing and most importantly due to climate change.

In order to measure the variation between the statistics of different countries experimental impact, the report gauged that how large an ‘ecological footprint’ each one had and how much productive land and water area, or “bio-capacity”, each country accounted for.

Furthermore the report revealed that Kuwaitis followed by Qatar and UAE had seems to be the largest ecological footprint so far, as they are consuming and wasting more resources as compared to any other nation.

The report stated, “ If everyone on this planet have the same footprint as of Kuwait & Qatar resident, then we probably need 4.8 planets and if we lived similar to an USA resident, then we need 3.9 planets.”

Some poorer countries such as India, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo also had ecological footprint that seems fine with the planet’s ability to absorb their demands.

Birds are Theorized to be Direct Descendants of the Dinosaurs

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Anyone who has seen the classic movie Jurassic Park knows that today’s birds are theorized to be direct descendents of the dinosaurs. Well, that theory is now fact as scientists have closed the gap between the two thus proving the theory correct.

Bolstering this new discovery is an assortment of items including the existing record of fossils and those fossils that show some of the dinos indeed had feathers. Imagining those frightening and sometimes funny giant lizards with feathering is something that stirs the imagination and may well mean our depictions of them in the past have been wrong in many cases.

There is no ‘missing link’ so to speak but a gradual evolution of the creatures into feathered ones and then progressively dwindling in size probably due to the mass extinction event eons ago that wiped out the age of dinosaur domination. Over 850 physiological features from some 150 extinct species of bird gave way to this discovery by Steve Brusatte, Edinburgh University’s top paleontologists and his team. Piecing together the puzzle allowed for them to make a family tree of sorts showing the evolutionary pattern thus clinching the theory into factual examination.

No one knows why birds beat out the dinosaurs or what remained of them after the asteroid impact that almost wiped their species clean but one George Gaylord Simpson, noted paleontologist put out a postulate in the 1940s that when that new physiological form takes place the diversification of bird species rose and spread out.

With this new data, it will take scientists some time as well as illustrators and even Hollywood to rethink and redesign what dinosaurs may have looked like. There is doubt that one would see a brontosaurus or T Rex adorned in colorful plumage but there are large species of dinosaurs that may well have had such. New data as to which species did or did not have feathers will be bandied about and that information will be seen in text books and on the big screen no doubt.

This discovery is just another in the long line of new data about dinosaurs emerging in the news of late. More gigantic dinos have been discovered as well as odd shaped ones and those in areas no one had suspected to find fossils. It goes to show we still have a lot to discover about dinosaurs and the millions upon millions of years they dwelt on Earth.

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