Re: Feathered Bloodhounds

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

Up front: the lit sez I was wrong about observable scent-driven behavior (food 
location, mate recognition, navigation, nest location). Would have nice to post 
after checking, as opposed to before, but too late for that. O well, I was 
bound to be wrong someday... as the old man used to say. Sometimes several 
times in a day.

The 'not using olfaction for predation avoidance' observation still stands, but 
probably not for long. I always assumed that the eyes/ears acuity combined w/ 
flight ability were such that smell never was needed.

Wouldn't be surprising if ostriches were found to be using scent to maintain 
flight distance, given the other stuff that is out.

Don

> --- On Fri, 7/18/08, don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > From: don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Re: Feathered Bloodhounds
> > To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Date: Friday, July 18, 2008, 5:40 AM
> > Having grown up in the country, I declare my extreme
> > skepticism on practical grounds. In contrast to deer
> > hunting: when duck, dove, quail, or turkey hunting one
> > needs worry not a whit about which way the air is
> moving,
> > whether one should smoke, or what detergent one's
> > clothes were washed in. 
> > 
> > If the birds whose behavior I am familiar with are
> > obtaining olfactory information, they are not using
> that
> > information to avoid predation.
> > 
> > Nor have I observed birds engaged in any scent-driven
> > behaviors; sniffing each other, altering their route
> to
> > investigate/avoid a source of odor, or just
> 'testing
> > the air'. Such behaviors can be observed on a
> daily
> > basis w/ many mammals, even humans...
> > 
> > If birds have good sniffers, they don't seem to be
> > getting much bang for their buck. Maybe a
> re-examination of
> > underlying assumptions is in order, because this one
> > doesn't pass the smell test.
> > 
> > Don 
> > 
> > --- On Thu, 7/17/08, Dann Pigdon
> > <dannj@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
> > 
> > > From: Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>
> > > Subject: Feathered Bloodhounds
> > > To: "DML" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> > > Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008, 10:54 PM
> > > Feathered Bloodhounds?
> > > By Greg Miller, ScienceNOW Daily News
> > > 
> > > ... In the new study, a team led by molecular
> > ecologist
> > > Silke Steiger and her graduate adviser Bart 
> > > Kempenaers at the Max Planck Institute for
> Ornithology
> > in
> > > Starnberg, Germany, searched for smell-
> > > related genes in nine species representing seven
> major
> > > branches of the avian family tree. They 
> > > looked for genes that encode olfactory receptors,
> > which
> > > detect odors. Researchers generally 
> > > assume that animals with a greater variety of
> > receptors
> > > have a better sense of smell. Mice, for 
> > > example, have close to 1000 working olfactory
> receptor
> > > genes, and humans have roughly 400...
> > > 
> > > ...the researchers reported online 15 July in the
> > > Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "The
> sense of
> > 
> > > smell in birds may be as good as that of humans,
> and
> > in
> > > some cases, even better," Steiger says. 
> > > 
> > > Read more at:
> > >
> >
> http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/716/2
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > 
> > >
> >
> _____________________________________________________________
> > > 
> > > Dann Pigdon
> > > GIS / Archaeologist             
> > > http://geo_cities.com/dannsdinosaurs
> > > Melbourne, Australia            
> > > http://heretichides.soffiles.com
> > >
> >
> _____________________________________________________________