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Convergent Evolution Upends Honeyeaters' Taxonomy

Posted by kdawson on from the whole-new-family dept.

grrlscientist writes in with a beautiful piece of science, beautifully explicated. The poignant bit is that the birds in question are all extinct. "Every once in awhile, I will read a scientific paper that astonishes and delights me so much that I can hardly wait to tell you all about it. Such is the situation with a newly published paper about the Hawai'ian Honeyeaters. In short, due to the remarkable power of convergent evolution, Hawai'ian Honeyeaters have thoroughly deceived taxonomists and ornithologists as to their true origin and identity for more than 200 years."

6 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. yet another lame fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    brought to you by a red headline

  2. Get a life. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Beautiful? Poignant? Delights? Are you sure you aren't a child molester?

  3. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Dylan
    LAinhart
    LEET HAXOR 1st postyed bitches

  4. How can you think about birds? Pay attention! by Gizzmonic · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Forget about those concepts of evolution and those widdle cutey birds, because you're COVERED WITH SCORPIONS? Covvverrrred with scorpions!

    You will now do my bidding. Give me all your lunch money!

    --
    (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
  5. Re:Predictive power of evolution! by maxume · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    You bastard! I wanted 22994.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  6. Re:Who is this grrlscientist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    we're offering free iPods to the first 100 people who welcome us.*

    Is that what they call sex organs nowadays? Makes sense.

    Why the need to make such a bitter, sardonic, offensive comment? You think your hormones entitle you to greatness? You don't need to earn it?

    And why does the poster feel the need to call herself grrlscientist? It's hard to take this fascinating post seriously when the name of the poster symbolizes the hypocrisy of the women's movement (70% of psych majors/soft scientists are female - no one cares. 80% of electrical engineers/hard scientists are male? Madness! Blame the patriarchy! Did I mention college attendance rates? Suicide rates? Workplace fatalities? Who cares! we need to waste our tax money on VAWA!).

    If you "men" here on Slashdot really take pride in your intellect, you'll use that pride - and your intellect, hopefully, to dispel your stereotypical fear of the opposite sex ('cause they're SO scary.... and it's SO hard to communicate in this age of social networks and text messages, etc.) by standing up for your rights and not being afraid to use your intellect to defeat tyranny and hypocrisy and irrationality, instead of being a coward who lets yourself get walked over for fear of "not getting laid." But alas, "the evil that men do lives on, and the good is oft interred with the bones...."