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Tag: "birds" at biology news

'Uniquely human' component of language found in gregarious birds

...ychology at UCSD and lead author of the study. "If birds can learn these patterning rules, then their use d...rattle-Rattle-Warble-warble (aABb). Eleven adult birds were given lessons on distinguishing between these two sets of songs using classic reinforcement tec...

Birds that make teeth

...hn F. Fallon and colleagues have found that modern birds retain the ability to make teeth even without inst...rn birds. The findings strongly suggest that the birds were initiating developmental programs similar to those of their reptilian ancestors. In addition, t...

Scientist uses dragonflies to better understand flight

...an interview. "It's the long-standing question: Of birds and planes, which is better? And if we think planes are better -- why?" Conventional wisdom holds that airplanes (airfoils) are more efficient because they travel from point to point with no wasted up-and-down motion. "But there are infinitely many ...

Computers to save unique type of American red squirrel

...s and huge forest fires, as well as predation from birds of prey like the Mexican Spotted Owl and the Northern goshawk and mammals like the Bobcat. Dr Peter Lurz, a research associate based at Newcastle University's Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability, began working on the project wh...

Sweetgum tree could help lessen shortage of bird flu drug

... virus, a strain known as H5N1, primarily afflicts birds at present but has been known to kill a small but growing number of humans who have had close contact with infected birds. There is a skyrocketing demand for Tamiflu, but some experts fear there won’t be enough of the drug to treat everyone if a wor...

Frog’s ear canal may provide insights for understanding human hearing loss

...Hz frequencies that most amphibians, reptiles and birds are capable of hearing and producing. Key parts of the ear must be specially adapted to detect ultrasounds -- namely, the eardrum must be very thin to vibrate effectively at these high frequencies, and the bones of the middle ear must be extremely li...

Marsupial genome reveals insights into mammalian evolution

...le immune system seen in lower vertebrates such as birds and fish," says Belov. "Interest in marsupial and monotreme genomes comes from their important positions in vertebrate evolution," says Belov. (Monotremes are egg-laying mammals, represented today by only the platypus and echidna.) "Comparing gene...

Pregnancy drugs can affect grandkids

...reat signal between males, which would explain why birds have evolved such complex song repertoires. The Dupont's lark is a rare and specialised steppe passerine, and its song unit is made up of up to 11 discrete sequences, each sequence being composed of up to 13 notes. The most common sequence is known ...

Bird song changes sound alarm over habitat fragmentation

...reat signal between males, which would explain why birds have evolved such complex song repertoires. The Dupont's lark is a rare and specialised steppe passerine, and its song unit is made up of up to 11 discrete sequences, each sequence being composed of up to 13 notes. The most common sequence is known ...

Engineers discover why toucan beaks are models of lightweight strength

...sidents of rainforests in the Amazon, although the birds live as far north as Mexico. They use their extremely large and often brightly colored beaks for a variety of purposes, from gathering fruit from the tips of tree branches, to defending themselves. Bird beaks are typically either short and thick or...

Poison + water = hydrogen. New microbial genome shows how

...guide for these microbes, like those available for birds and mammals," Eisen says. "Right now, we can't even answer simple questions. Do similar hot springs, a world apart, share similar microbes? How do microbes move between hot springs? Our new work will help us find out." ...

UCR environmental scientists propose chemical solution to cleaning California's Salton Sea

...or fish, resulting also in the loss of fish-eating birds frequenting an area that is home also to several e... dust and worsen air quality. Fish and fish-eating birds would disappear in 10-30 years, and be replaced perhaps by birds that eat brine shrimp. And the sea ...

Expert dispels bird flu paranoia

...getting bird flu off a pet bird or your neighbours birds are so infinitesimally small," UQ School of Veteri...iral disease of all birds, usually spread by water birds but normally only causing disease in poultry. Contaminated water is the most common source of infe...

Wild birds help to create human flu vaccine

...eAvian influenza virus samples collected from wild birds in Mongolia by field veterinarians from the New Yo...unicable Diseases with Natural Foci - searched for birds from the Gobi Desert to the northern mountain lakes of the country and collected samples from hundre...

Seal rookeries could provide a reliable food source for endangered California condors, study finds

...eased near seal and sea lion rookeries so that the birds can once again feast on the carcasses of marine ma...ndor populations could be enhanced if captive-bred birds are released near marine mammal breeding grounds along the West Coast. "Condors eat carrion, they d...

Overfishing may drive endangered seabird to rely upon lower quality food

...low levels of reproductive success. "You'd expect birds to nest every year, but we found that in some year...rchers analyzed marbled murrelet feathers from 136 birds collected in the Monterey Bay region between 1895 and 1911. The historic feathers represent a time p...

Did feathered dinosaurs exist?

...ryBiologists examining evidence for the claim that birds evolved from dinosaurs have reached some surprisin...ory about feather origins and the relationships of birds and dinosaurs. All experts agree that birds are related to theropod dinosaurs; however, debate has...

First big influenza genome study reveals flu evolution

...5N1 bird flu strain found in poultry and migratory birds in Asia and Russia, will jump the species barrier into humans and trigger a new pandemic. Although researchers first isolated the influenza virus in 1933, they still don't fully understand how the virus evolves. Influenza is an RNA virus that cont...

Newly discovered birdlike dinosaur is oldest raptor ever found in South America

...ful of specimens of possible dromaeosaurs or early birds have been discovered on southern continents. Never... imply that flight may have evolved twice, once in birds and once among this group of Gondwanan dromaeosaurs. This evolutionary research is part of a larger,...

Removing egg from nest may help save endangered whooping crane

...oping crane's numbers have skyrocketed to over 200 birds in the original population and two new populations have been established elsewhere. But Parks Canada prefers that no future egg collections occur in Wood Buffalo National Park due to concerns that egg removals may reduce the productivity of the whoo...

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