10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2014

The original story is that emus and ostriches and moas and such evolved as a separate group of birds from all the other birds, from the basal birdish thing that gave rise to all the living birds, and became a large land bird. This was on Gondwana.

Madagascar 224

Madagascar Ostriches Elephants New Zealand 224

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2014

But you won’t find Ostrich or another ratite in first place on Jetz et al.’s The Oilbird today lives only in South America, but fossils of similar species are known from Wyoming. It’s a bat-like cave-dwelling, echolocating, fruit-eating nocturnal species capable of hovering on three-foot wings.

Madagascar 278

Madagascar Comoros South America Ecuador 278

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2014

First off, it seems that New Zealand’s two iconic families of ratites, large flightless southern birds that includes emus, rhea, ostriches, cassowaries and the extinct elephant birds, are not particularly closely related. Moa and Kiwi aren’t brothers and sisters. The kiwi, on the other hand, seem to be closer to emu.

New Zealand 167

New Zealand Penguins Sea Lions Lions 167

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The new 48-genome analysis included only ostrich and tinamou DNA, so it doesn’t shed further light on paleognath interrelationships, but it does reinforce their distinctiveness from all other living birds. The Hoatzin, which may have reached South America by raft , has resisted placement in basically every study ever done.

Family 279

Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. The Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) — that towering icon of modern anthropogenic extinctions — was a pigeon.

Solomon Islands 279

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 279