Ben Creisler
Some additional recent mainly avian items:
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A new in-depth blog post on Raptormaniacs
About Maniraptorans
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A new bird paper:
Dromaius arleyekweke sp. nov.
A new, diminutive species of dromaiine casuariid, Dromaius arleyekweke, is described from dispersed skeletal elements from the late Miocene Waite Formation of the Northern Territory, Australia. Remains of D. arleyekweke, sp. nov., have been found from the Ongeva Local Fauna in the Alcoota Scientific Reserve, but most remains come from the stratigraphically lower Alcoota Local Fauna where they form part of a densely fossiliferous series of mingled bone beds. Previously, remains of the new species had been referred to the basal dromaiine genus, Emuarius, but phylogenetic appraisal of new specimens indicates that the species shared a more recent common ancestor with the extant Dromaius novaehollandiae than it did with the type species of Emuarius, E. gidju. Consequently, the new species is placed in the genus Dromaius as its oldest known member. Derived characters of D. arleyekweke that are shared with D. novaehollandiae to the exclusion of E. gidju include a distally flattened external condyle of the distal end of the tibiotarsus and a more elongate tarsometatarsus, with marked transverse compression of the midshaft and a weakly impressed median sulcus on trochlea metatarsi II. Casuariid evolution shows a trend of increasingly cursorial hind limb proportions on the emu lineage, but D. arleyekweke has a tarsometatarsus that is more elongate than that of D. novaehollandiae. This implies nonlinear evolution of cursoriality in dromaiines and that D. arleyekweke evolved extreme cursorial proportions independently of D. novaehollandiae, or that a high degree of cursoriality evolved early in Dromaius and was reversed in the Pliocene D. ocypus.
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Eamon Yu, ÂKen W. S. Ashwell Â& ÂBoaz Shulruf (2019)
Quantitative Analysis Of Arterial Supply To The Developing Brain In Tetrapod Vertebrates.
The Anatomical Record (advance online publication)
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24317https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.24317Understanding the metabolic cost of building developing tetrapod brains is critically important to explaining the more than tenâfold differences in encephalization of adult tetrapods that have emerged during evolution. The exact metabolic costs of developing the variety of tetrapod brains are impossible to determine, but one can compare cerebral artery caliber (internal radius raised to the fourth power â r4) across developing tetrapod vertebrate groups as a proxy of cerebral arterial flow, the delivery of nutrients during embryogenesis and early postnatal development, and hence the metabolic costs of brain development. In this study, r4 of aortic outflow and cerebral inflow arteries, as well as aortic wall thickness as a proxy of arterial pressure, were measured and compared between developing representatives of all four tetrapod classes (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians). We found a clear endotherm/ectotherm dichotomy in aortic outflow and cerebral inflow between developing mammals and birds on the one hand, and developing reptiles and amphibians on the other. We did not find strong evidence for functionally significant differences in cerebral arterial caliber between groups at the order level (i.e. within birds, reptiles or amphibians). In particular, we did not find evidence in favor of increased blood supply to the brain for more behaviorally complex and encephalized avian species.
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Animal societies can be organised in multiple hierarchical tiers]. Such multilevel societies, where stable groups move together through the landscape, overlapping and associating preferentially with specific other groups, are thought to represent one of the most complex forms of social structure in vertebrates. For example, hamadryas baboons ( Papio hamadryas) live in units consisting of one male and one or several females, or of several solitary males, that group into clans. These clans then come together with solitary bachelor males to form larger bands. This social structure means that individuals have to track many different types of relationships at the same time. Here, we provide detailed quantitative evidence for the presence of a multilevel society in a small-brained bird, the vulturine guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum). We demonstrate that this species lives in large, multi-male, multi-female groups that associate preferentially with specific other groups, both during the day and at night-time communal roosts.
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