Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Flightless birds are birds that cannot fly, as they have, through evolution, lost the ability to. [1] There are over 60 extant species, [2] including the well-known ratites (ostriches, emus, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwis) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island rail (length 12.5 cm, weight 34.7
Pages in category "Flightless birds" The following 52 pages are in this category, out of 52 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. ...
Thus, living birds were divided into carinatae (keeled) and ratites (from ratis, "raft", referring to the flatness of the sternum). The difficulty with this scheme phylogenetically was that some flightless birds, without strong keels, are descended directly from ordinary flying birds possessing one.
The basal metabolic rate of flighted species is much higher than that of flightless terrestrial birds. [34] But energetic efficiency can only help explain the loss of flight when the benefits of flying are not critical to survival. Research on flightless rails indicates the flightless condition evolved in the absence of predators. [35]
Another twist: some of them can even fly. The study's lead author Andrew Cooper told New Scientist, " In ... So Cooper says the answer to how flightless birds spread all over the world is simple ...
It is nearly flightless, using its wings for displays (its primary wing feathers are patterned), and for moving quickly through the forest. It can also use them to glide when fleeing danger. The wings are not reduced in size like some other flightless birds, and have a span of around 77.5 cm (30 + 1 ⁄ 2 in), but they lack the musculature for ...
The bird kicked the younger boy, who fell and ran away as his older brother struck the bird. The older McClean then tripped and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground, the cassowary kicked him in the neck, opening a 1.25-centimetre (0.49 in) wound that severed his jugular vein .
Cariamiformes (or Cariamae) is an order of primarily flightless birds that has existed for over 50 million years. The group includes the family Cariamidae (seriemas) and the extinct families such as Phorusrhacidae, Bathornithidae, Idiornithidae and Ameghinornithidae.