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The black-chinned hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) is the bird species known to have the smallest genome among birds, which is only 0.91 Gb long.The genomic evolution of birds has come under scrutiny since the advent of rapid DNA sequencing, as birds have the smallest genomes of the amniotes despite acquiring highly derived phenotypic traits.
The ZW sex-determination system is a chromosomal system that determines the sex of offspring in birds, some fish and crustaceans such as the giant river prawn, some insects (including butterflies and moths), the schistosome family of flatworms, and some reptiles, e.g. majority of snakes, lacertid lizards and monitors, including Komodo dragons.
Atavism has also recently been induced in avian dinosaur (bird) fetuses to express dormant ancestral non-avian dinosaur (non-bird) features, including teeth. [11] Other examples of observed atavisms include: Hind limbs in cetaceans and sirenians. [3] [12] Extra toes of the modern horse. [3] [13] [14] Reappearance of limbs in limbless ...
The evolution of birds began in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from a clade of theropod dinosaurs named Paraves. [1] Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves. For more than a century, the small theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx lithographica from the Late Jurassic period was considered to have been the earliest bird.
Synapomorphy/homology – a derived trait that is found in some or all terminal groups of a clade, and inherited from a common ancestor, for which it was an autapomorphy (i.e., not present in its immediate ancestor). Underlying synapomorphy – a synapomorphy that has been lost again in many members of the clade. If lost in all but one, it can ...
The terms "primitive" and "advanced", etc., are not properly used in referring to a species or an organism as any species or organism is a mosaic of primitive and derived traits. Using "primitive" and "advanced" may lead to "ladder thinking" (compare the Latin term scala naturae 'ladder of nature'), [ 8 ] which is the thought that all species ...
That is birds and mammals are vertebrates for which the backbone is a defining synapomorphic characteristic, while insects are invertebrates for which the absence of a backbone is a defining characteristic. Species should not be grouped purely by morphologic or genetic similarity.
A genetic chimerism or chimera (/ k aɪ ˈ m ɪər ə / ky-MEER-ə or / k ɪ ˈ m ɪər ə / kim-EER-ə) is a single organism composed of cells with more than one distinct genotype. Animal chimeras can be produced by the fusion of two (or more) embryos .