10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2015

Flight has evolved multiple times; it has emerged in lizards, snakes, fish, bats, maybe bats again, distant relatives of primates, regular primates, rodents, and a few other unlikely taxa, in a rather half baked fashion, not “true” flight. It has evolved in non-vertebrate animals like insects more than once.

Rodents 195

Rodents Primates Bats Science 195

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

They are large passerines and research has shown them to be an ancient basal offshoot from the passerine tree (at approximately the same time as rockjumpers, were even placed in the same family until quite recently). Then a few years ago the news broke that picathartes had been rediscovered at a community forest reserve in Ghana.

Ghana 201

Ghana Hunters Guinea Gambia 201

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 30, 2023

And of course, some Chinese researchers worked on the complete mitochondrial genome of the Greater Coucal. Are these the paper mills one occasionally reads about in relation to Chinese research papers? At Sepilok, it can be hard to avoid taking photos of some non-birds, such as primates. I think they just got what they deserved.

Woodpeckers 226

Woodpeckers Birds Eggs India 226