Ibis and kiwi dogs dig, examine the sand and soil of insects and other buried prey. Sandpipers can also be seen digging small creatures along the sea shore with their beaks. It has long been thought that these birds were using trial and error to find their prey.
But then scientists discovered some more strange things: their beaks are found with cells that can detect vibrations traveling through the earth. Some birds can sense the activities of their distant abyss directly, while others pick up the ripples of the buried shells – meaning a dolphin or a bat, meaning through the earth.
There is another strange detail in this story of the extraordinary senses of birds: st streaks and emes, the beak of the internal structure of birds that certainly do not search with this huang. They are bees with holes for these cells, although the cells are lost on their own. Now, scientists in A study published Wednesday in the Proceedings Royal Society B Report that the ancient historical bird ancestors were found almost as long as the dinosaurs because their beaks were able to sensitize companies.
Carla Du Toit, a graduate student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and author of the paper, said the birds that use this remote sensing are not closely related today. This made him and his co-authors curious as to when this ability was actually developed, and whether the ostrich, which is a close relative of the Kiwis, was an ancestor who used this sensory ability.
“We needed to see if we could find organic birds from that group early,” said Mrs. Du Toit. “And we’re very lucky.” There is a well-preserved biological state of birds called lithornithids, after which attempts were made to exterminate the Nanavian dinosaurs.
Previously, they had to collect data on the selection of more than 50 birds so that they could tell how similar or different the organic birds were to modern birds. The team recorded the number of holes in the beak bone and the size of the beak and head, important details because birds that dig for their food are a form of traits.
Then he took a look at the lithonths. And in fact, the ancient beak and head structure closely resembled the beaks of kiwis, ibis and sandpipers, much closer than any other bird in the study.
“It looks like they have this organ and they were able to use the remote touch sensor to investigate and locate the prey, which is really cool, because it just shows that it’s really old.” Said Mrs. Du Toit.
This means that the ancestors of the ostriches and Ames, the Lithornithides, lost their ability some time later in life, leaving them with only traces of this resonant genius in their bone structure. They also lack a wide range of brain areas dedicated to processing the sensory information found in the beaks of kiwi, ibis and conical birds.
Miss Du Toit and her colleagues are now studying Hadida Ibis, a South African bird that uses remote sensing to see how far it can sense hidden objects – perhaps eight from the surface. Inches down.
