All Questions
Tagged with natural-selection ornithology
7 questions
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How did migrations evolve?
Disclaimer: I know nearly nothing about biology.
I was wondering how did the migratory behaviour of birds evolve. Assuming that evolution/natural selection works slowly and gradually (at least most of ...
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Why can't geese regurgitate food?
I saw this harrowing video on how barnacle goslings have to jump off very high cliffs because the parent's can't feed them. The death rate seems high. Why did natural selection come to favor jumping ...
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Can Females Songbirds Have Male Plumage?
Male birds are colorful for courtship displays, females are dull for camouflage. But, is written in a website somewhere that sometimes, when females birds are sterile, they grow male plumage due to ...
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How does the modern synthesis theory explain the evolution of birds from dinosaurs? [closed]
The theory of evolution claims that birds evolved from dinosaurs only by mutation, genetic drift, migration and natural selection.
However, it seems to me that wings were not selectively advantageous ...
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Niche differentiation in birds of prey
I'm not much of an ornithologist but I know enough to distinguish most Central European birds of prey. To me it is amazing that there are so many species that seem to occupy the same niche. Especially ...
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The evolutionary process in bird wings, especially with regard to winglets
In this answer on aviation.SE a comparison is made between the shapes of airplanes wings and the shapes of birds wings. It concludes with the following remark:
After all, no bird has winglets. Not ...
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What exactly does adaptive mean?
This is a quote from Dey et al 2014:
Hatching asynchrony is thought to be adaptive because...
What exactly does adaptive mean here? Does it mean hatching asynchrony has fitness benefits? Or does ...
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