Dino departure fattened emu

Galvasean

What did the birds do when the giant dinosaurs got wiped out? Became just like them!
That's what a recently published study shows.

The study, led by Dr Matthew Phillips, an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow at the ANU Research School of Biology, looked at the mitochondrial genome sequences of the now-extinct giant moa birds of New Zealand. To their surprise, the researchers found that rather than having a flightless relative, their closest relatives are the small flying tinamous of South America.

Their molecular dating study suggests that the ancestors of the African ostrich, Australasian emu plus cassowary, South American rheas and New Zealand moa became flightless independently, in close association with the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

Full article here.

Yitzhak Rabin

Here's an interesting article about the topic.

http://locolobo.org/Dromiceiomimus.html

Its not a scientific article, but an interesting read nonetheless.

One of the most interesting parts is when examining his own pet emu, he noticed that it has a vestigal arm, with a claw still intact, something which I wasn't aware of.

Galvasean

Fascinating. I had no idea ratites had claws! I was under the impression that the hoatzin was the only one.

Yitzhak Rabin

Galvasean wrote: »

Fascinating. I had no idea ratites had claws! I was under the impression that the hoatzin was the only one.

Same.

I would have thought it would be obvious if it were true.

The guy who wrote the piece is a Youtube user called AronRa. His videos are excellent. As far as I know he is an undergrad studying Taxonomy/Cladistics. So he should have a good idea what he is talking about.

Galvasean

Really? Haha! I've actually atched some of his videos. Small world.

Galvasean

Actually this thread reminds me of an excellent blog I read on Titanis walleri entitled No prehensile clawed hands for you, Titanis:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/06/raven_the_clawhanded_bird.php




PS: anyone care to guess what my next creatreoftheweek will be? :P