Exam 1 Flashcards
(50 cards)
“Pod”
Means foot
True or False: Birds are Amniotes
True
What’s the amnion and what’s its significance
The amnion is a newly derived (evolutionarily) extraembryonic membrane. The amnion is flexible, allows gas exchange, water-proof.
are vertebrates with feathers, modified for flight, and for active metabolism
Birds
what sub category are birds under
Reptiles
what birds have keels
Carinate birds
what birds are non-flying, flat chested
Ratite Birds
What are the extant descendants of the reptilian Archosaurian lineage
- Crocodylians
- Aves
What class are birds in?
Class Aves
How many extant birds are there?
Approximately 10,000
What’s the smallest bird in the world?
Bee hummingbird
What’s the largest bird in the world?
Ostrich
How many species of birds are there in the U.S.?
950
How many species of birds are there in North America
1950
What are the 5 basic characteristics of birds
- Feathers a unique character among living animals, but also found in dinosaurs.
- Endothermic
- Skeleton modified for flight. Bones hollow, forelimbs support the wing, ribs, with uncinate processes, beak but no teeth, reduced tail.
- Breathing by lungs and associated air sacs
- Internal Fertilization and hard-shelled amniotic egg
What are the 2 categories that make birds flying machines
- Weight Reduction
- Power enhancement and adaptations that pertains biomechanics or flight.
What are some ways that birds bodies help them fly faster in terms of weight reduction?
- Reduce weight by the absence of some organs.
- females only have one ovary.
- most birds don’t have a urinary bladder.
- reproductive organs shrink during the non-breeding season.
- carry only as much fat as necessary. they’re typically very lean. - Modern birds are toothless and grind their food in a muscular gizzard near the stomach.
- Birds have a torpedo (fusiform) shape.
- Birds have their center of gravity positioned so as to be aerodynamically stable when flying.
- The skeletons of birds have several adaptations that make them light, flexible, but strong.
- the bones are honeycombed to reduce weight without sacrificing much strength.
What are some ways birds fly faster in terms of power enhancement?
- Flying requires a great expenditure of energy from an active metabolism.
- Birds are endothermic, using their own metabolic heat to maintain a constant body temperature.
- Efficient respiratory and circulatory systems with a four chambered heart keep tissues well supplied with oxygen and nutrients. - Birds have excellent vision and excellent coordination, supported by well-developed areas of the brain.
- The large brains of birds (proportionally larger than those of reptiles or amphibians) support very complex behavior.
What are the most obvious adaptations for flight?
Feathers and wings
What does “ABA Area” mean
American Birding Association
What’s the difference between Modern and non-modern birds?
Modern birds are everything but ratite and tinamous.
What’s the difference between 1. Paleognathae vs. 2. Neognathae
- Paleognathae are modern birds, except they have ancestral archosaurian palate. 5 orders which include Ratites (ostriches, rheas, cassowaries, emus, and kiwis, all with unkeeled sternum); and tinamous (with keeled sternum).
- Neognathae are modern birds with flexible palate- the other 22 orders
- “non passerines”- 26 orders that are not passerines.
- Passerines- the most derived order, the “songbirds”. About half of all species
What’s a ratite?
Background: most birds are carinates because they have a carina, or sternal keel, which anchors the large pectoal muscles.
- carinate birds exhibit a great variety of feather colors, beak and foot shapes, behaviors, and flying styles.
Ratites: These include a few flightless birds, the ratites, which lack a breastbone and large pectoral muscles. Ratites include ostrich, kiwi, and emu.
What’s a Tinamou?
A Tinamous are one of the most ancient groups of bird, members of a South American bird family of about 47 species in 9 genera. Although they look similar to other ground-dwelling birds like quail and grouse, they have no close relatives and are classified as a single family Tinamidae within their own order, the Tinamiformes.
