Tag Archive for 'Palaeognathae'

Palaeognath birds. Image credit: Bernard Dupont / Kore / Kadellar / Frank Vincentz / Rohit / Manuel Anastácio / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Palaeognath Birds are Capable of Technical Innovation, Study Shows

Feb 24, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Palaeognathae (meaning ‘old jaws’) is a small group of birds which includes several species that have evolved flightlessness and gigantism, such as...

Moa browsed trees and shrubs within the forest understorey. Image credit: Heinrich Harder.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Extinct Little Bush Moa

May 27, 2024 by News Staff

Using ancient DNA recovered from a fossil bone from New Zealand’s South Island, scientists from Harvard University and elsewhere have generated a draft...

Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy.

Study: Visual Perspective Taking Originated in Dinosaur Lineage, Likely Earlier than in Mammals

May 22, 2023 by News Staff

Taking someone else’s visual perspective marks an evolutionary shift in the formation of advanced social cognition. It enables using others’ attention...

Flightless or poorly-flighted modern, and recently extinct, paleognath birds with their respective egg sizes. Lithornis, an ancient flying paleognath bird, is depicted and has an unknown egg size. Image credit: Hyunjoo Shin / CC BY 4.0.

Ornithologists Construct New Phylogenetic Family Tree for Paleognath Birds

Feb 1, 2023 by Natali Anderson

About 50 species of birds on Earth today do not belong to the same group as the other 10,000 currently in existence. Known as the paleognaths, this small...

Life reconstruction of Janavis finalidens. Image credit: Phillip Krzeminski.

Cretaceous-Period Toothed Bird Had Mobile Beak

Dec 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Janavis finalidens — an extinct bird species that lived 66.7 million years ago and was one of the last toothed birds to ever live — had a mobile,...

A pair of kiwi by John Gerrard Keulemans in A history of the birds of New Zealand, 1873. Image credit: National Library NZ.

First Remote-Touch Probing Birds Appeared in Cretaceous Period

Dec 9, 2020 by News Staff

Some probe-foraging birds locate their buried prey by detecting vibrations in the substrate using a specialized tactile bill-tip organ. This remarkable...