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Kiwi Genetically Closer to Extinct Elephant Birds Than to the Emu
"A new study by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD), has solved a 150-year-old evolutionary mystery about the origins of the giant flightless 'ratite' birds, such as the emu and ostrich, which are found across the southern continents. This group contains some of the world's largest birds - such as the extinct giant moa of New Zealand and elephant birds of Madagascar. ... [A]ncient DNA extracted from bones of two elephant birds held by the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, has revealed a close genetic connection with the kiwi, despite the striking differences in geography, morphology and ecology between the two." Which means that the emu is not, as conventional wisdom has long held, the kiwi's closest link. Here's more on the research from the University of Adelaide.
Had to read this twice before I realised they weren't talking about New Zealanders in general.
The pursuit of tastier and bigger chickens always matters.
stuff that splatters
Yeah, what has biology ever done for us...
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
A 275kg (600 pound) bird three metres (10 feet) tall doesn't matter?
How about if it's yellow?
Why do you think they went extinct upon first contact with humans?
That's what you get when you give Col. Sanders an expedition corps.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Rather not. "Bananas on a plane" sounds more like something you get from Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I happen to work at a safari which has rhea, ostrich and emu; so I found this to be very helpful to me :)
A recent visit to Madagascar really put paid to any naive belief I might have had that "primitive tribes" lived in harmony with nature. Sure, the death blow to the island's forest cover is being dealt now by an industrial China hungry for exotic wood, but in fact the bulk of deforestation happened before European colonialism. The island's giant bird (said to be the inspiration for the roc of Arab legend) was also hunted to extinction well before human beings showed up.
A pre-industrial society can do plenty of damage on its own.
You really have to try hard to come up with a headline that makes even the most hardcore slashdotter scream "OMG what a NERD" when reading it.
Well before human being showed up???
What were they hunted by? Giant cats?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Oops, sorry, my mistake, I meant to write "Well before Europeans showed up".
That's that EEEVIL Eurocentrism I've heard about, isn't it?
In any case, I agree completely. Primitive people are more than capable of screwing up the ecology without any help from the rest of us, and are generally too ignorant and poor to have any real chance of doing anything other than screwing things up....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
And here I was looking forward to an argument about how large birds and delicious fuzzy brown fruit are NOT in fact closely related.
One that has heard of 'importing'.
Maybe we can get enough DNA to bring back these big birds. But then again it seems like our society screws things up. Remember the ostrich craze? People spent huge sums to get ostriches under the theory that an ostrich ranch was the next big thing. Supposedly businesses just could not get enough ostrich parts and the meat was going to be a big seller as well. The price of an ostrich passed 80K.. But none of us are seeing ostrich meat at the markets. I wonder how many millions were lost on the ostrich scams. The earth worm scam preceded the ostrich scam. People invested a lot of money getting supplies to start farming worms in warehouses. they were told that that the shampoo industry used protein from worms and all were told they could make a fortune with the worms doing the work.
When I was a kid the fruit was called chinese goosberry
Unfortunately, also has the taste of elephant...
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Humans have started to heavily wreck the environment long before modern times, yes.
This is hardly surprising. Humans were neophytes almost everywhere and disrupted the local fauna and flora. They also multiplied like rabbits.
But this has become a global problem now, with more than 7 billion of us. The number of existing species is plummeting, just like the number of living animals of all species that are not our pets or cattle. We are the cause of a modern mass extinction event that is very similar to the handful of former extinction events, just that it happens much faster.
If kiwis are related to the much bigger elephant birds, that might explain why they lay such ridiculously big eggs - they've shrunk but their eggs haven't caught up yet.
Mate, this matters to New Zealanders! For 20 years our national symbol has been linked as a descendant of the Australian ratites, coupled with our national inferiority complex (see below) the psychological impact has been devastating. Now we are free to clomp around with the flightless chicken-sized kiwi free from any Australian associations.
New Zealanders are well balanced with a chip on each shoulder. One represents Australia, the other the rest of the world
Radio NZ did a 40 minute interview with evolutionary biologist Alan Cooper (the lead researcher) on Saturday. It is well worth a listen if you've got the time.