10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. Whales are cows. So, for example, humans are apes. The point is, of course, that whales are not cows. Cows do not.

Camels 204

Camels Whales Whaling Apes 204

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2013

Birds are less compelling to human interest than our fellow primates, in many regards, but surely they are more arresting than a big wad of tentacled whale chow. Birds are less compelling to human interest than our fellow primates, in many regards, but surely they are more arresting than a big wad of tentacled whale chow.

Apes 161

Apes Birds Woodpeckers Primates 161

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Artists rendition of Inkayacu paracasensis There are 17 living species of penguins, which make up their own Linnean family (Spheniscidae), which is the only family in the order Sphenisciformes. Penguins are flightless, but some species locomote over long distances on antarctic ice to travel between breeding grounds and the sea.

Penguins 198

Penguins Seals Peru Science 198

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

What I didn’t know was how this relationship actually works: the mechanics of Red Knot migration, the reduced digestive systems necessary for their long flighta, the need to fatten up quickly so they can fly to the Arctic and breed, how they compete with other shorebirds and gulls and, it turns out, humans, for horseshoe crab eggs.

Delaware 183

Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 183