Discussion for article #231161
Ahhhh. An article for the birds.
Pretty fascinating. Cool article.
4 Likes
One branch leads to doves, flamingoes and a few other species, while the other branch leads to basically everything else.
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A second split followed soon after, so that the resulting four lineages.
No…that would be three lineages. I think a few paragraphs may be missing here?
In any event, great news, and a radical improvement over the “ZOMG BUSH TIWNS!!11!” nonsense that occasionally appears here. I’ve always thought that if you want to run a political news site, which is essentially always bad news, since people, and especially political people, are always awful and stupid, you should leaven it with science news, which is always somewhat positive and is about what is best in humanity.
8 Likes
Okay, so here’s what is missing: the first split is between the early flightless birds (ratites and “terror birds”)* and all others. The second split is between galliforms (chickens, ducks, etc.) and all others. The third split is between this newly identified group “Columbea”: doves, flamingoes, etc. and all others, and with the “all others” there you have four groups heading in to the KT boundary.
*Edit: not Terror Birds – I always confuse Tinamous with Seriemas: the latter are related to Terror Birds.
6 Likes
I got your G-Gnome right here…
Lies from the pit of Hell!
2 Likes
No. No. No. God made them all on day 2. The ones with teeth also had a prehensile tail and opposable thumbs.
Terradactyl gets dissed, not even a mention. And everyone knows that Terra was the big boy on the block : )