B=rachis or shaft

C= calamus or quill

Barbules and barbicels “velcro” the barbs together

b. (1 pts) Is this feather pennaceous or plumulaceous? pennaceous

(2 pts) How many orders of birds are there? About 30

(2 pts) Why don’t ornithologists agree on this number? Some orders may be lumped or split. Notably the ratites.

(4 pts) True or false:

__T__ The first bird appears in the fossil record in the Jurassic period about 160 million years B.P.

___T_ Fossil dinosaurs with feathers may actually be birds misidentified as dinosaurs.

__F__ Because of their high metabolic rate, most birds were able to survive the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic era. Most birds did not survive the K-T extinction event.

__F__ The current weight of evidence, and most paleontologists support the early reptilian origin of birds, although some very reputable scientists disagree. Most agree it was the Theropods.

(4 pts) Give four reasons that birds make such good study subjects for so many fields of biology? Convenient size, same wavelengths of light and sound as we use, diurnal, taxonomy well understood, ubiquitous (they’re everywhere), not too many nor too few species.

(2 pts) In what field of biology have birds proved of little help? Why? Genetics. Chromosomes too numerous and too small.

(4 pts) “Citizen Science” been more useful for Ornithology than any other biological discipline.

b. What is the major benefit to ornithologists? Many volunteers can cover a vast area and collect huge amounts of data.

c. Why is it practical at all to enlist “citizens” (non-scientists) into a research effort? Because birds are easy to identify and many people are good at it, we can get very reliable data from all those qualified bird nerds!

Convergent evolution.

d. (3 pts) What is it? Unrelated species, usually in different locations evolve to be very similar because of similar selective pressure/ecological niche.

e. (2 pts) Name 2 pairs of birds that demonstrate the phenomenon. Many options. Hummingbirds and sunbirds, toucans and hornbills, penguins and auks.

(2 pts) How do we distinguish primary and secondary flight feathers? Primaries come off the hand bones, secondaries off the ulna.

(3 pts) List 3 pieces of evidence that convince us that birds evolved from reptiles. Females heterozygotic, yolked eggs, scales on legs, nucleated red blood cells, single occipital condyle, ankle bones.

(3 pts) What is the “Modern Synthesis” and roughly when did it take place? Wedding Darwin’s theory and Mendel’s genetics. Early part of 20^th century.

(2 pts) What is the name of the biogeographic or faunal region…

f. …we are in here in NC? Neactic

g. …found south of the Isthmus of Panama? Neotropical

(8 pts) Match the Ornithologists with their major accomplishments:

_H_Broke the gender gap and pioneered

studies of birds using color bands.

_I_Was a draft-dodging artist who traveled

much of the eastern US shooting and

drawing birds for his monumental

The Birds of America.

_K_ Better known for his botanical work,

this scientist travelled extensively in what

would become the southeastern U.S. and

made important contributions to the

natural history of the region in the late 18^th

and early 19^th centuries.

_L_Wrote and illustrated the first field

guide that made identification of birds

in the field accessible to amateur bird watchers.

(2 pts) What are the two forces that birds must overcome to remain airborne? Gravity and drag.

(4 pts) Strangely enough, there has been some controversy over the physics behind lift. Very briefly, what are the two explanations? Bernoulli’s principle (differential air pressure on the wing caused by differential air flow around it) and Newton’s 3^rd Law – every action has a reaction.

The avian skeleton and flight:

h. (3 pts) List three ways the avian skeleton differs from its reptilian ancestors that make it easier to fly. Hollow bones, fused bones, fewer bones, no teeth, short tail.

i. (2 pts) Every adaptation has its cost (there really is no such thing as a free lunch). For one of the modifications you listed in part “a” explain the cost associated with it. What did birds give up when the skeleton was evolved for flight? Hollow=fragile, fused=lost flexibility, fewer=less flexibility (probably), no teeth=process food with stones in gizzard (for some species), short tail=harder to balance.

Flight muscles:

j. (2 pts) What are the two major antagonistic flight muscles in birds? Pectoralis major and supracoracoideus.

k. (1 pt) Where does the muscle that elevates the wing originate? sternum

l. (1 pt) Where does it insert? Head of humerus.

m. (1 pts) What’s unusual about this arrangement? “should” be on the back.

n. (1 pts) How does the unusual location help birds in flight? Keeps center of gravity low, thus providing stability.

(5 pts) What was unique about New Zealand that permitted birds to "go wild", in an evolutionary sense, once they arrived? Name 2 birds that fill unusual ecological niches there. No mammalian competitors (lack of predators was less important).

(2 pts) What term describes this rapid, broad speciation? Adaptive radiation

(2 pts) Why was the timing of the discovery of Archaeopteryx lithographica important? Right after Darwin published Origin of Species. Provided the ‘missing link’ that skeptics were clammering for.

(2 pts) What of the following makes us believe that Archaeopteryx lithographica was capable of powered flight?

__ Its long tail was used as a rudder to fly through forests not this, because it would have helped a gliding species as well

__X Its asymmetrical flight feathers

__ Its keeled sternum Didn’t have this

__ Its lack of teeth did have teeth

(2 pts) What was special about the rocks it was found in and why was this important? Very fine-grained shale preserved impressions of feathers. Otherwise it would have (and 1 specimen was) been identified as a dino.

(4 pts) What result most surprised you on the results pages of the Great Backyard Bird Count website? Whatever.

(3 pts) List three functions of feathers. Flight, insulation, protection, camouflage, signaling, sensory organs, sound production.

(3 pts) It is obvious that the artist deserves an F-minus (ironically the name of the strip), at least as far as his understanding of the basic principles of evolution is concerned. What essential element of evolution does he clearly not understand, given his depiction of a flying cat? redundancy needed- Evolution is tinkering. You can’t evolve wings from something that wasn’t there. Cats have nothing that could have been modified into wings.

(2 pts) Which of the following is/are diagnostic character(s) for the Class Aves?
___Egg laying

__ Endothermy

__X Feathers

__ Lack of teeth

__ Wings