Kiwi Genetically Closer to Extinct Elephant Birds Than to the Emu 46
"A new study by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD), has solved a 150-year-old evolutionary mystery about the origins of the giant flightless 'ratite' birds, such as the emu and ostrich, which are found across the southern continents. This group contains some of the world's largest birds - such as the extinct giant moa of New Zealand and elephant birds of Madagascar. ... [A]ncient DNA extracted from bones of two elephant birds held by the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, has revealed a close genetic connection with the kiwi, despite the striking differences in geography, morphology and ecology between the two." Which means that the emu is not, as conventional wisdom has long held, the kiwi's closest link. Here's more on the research from the University of Adelaide.
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The pursuit of tastier and bigger chickens always matters.
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Unfortunately, also has the taste of elephant...
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stuff that splatters
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How about if it's yellow?
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Still don't care. Unless you can make buffalo wings from it. ::drools:: mmmm...giant buffalo wings...
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Why do you think they went extinct upon first contact with humans?
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That's what you get when you give Col. Sanders an expedition corps.
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Well before human being showed up???
What were they hunted by? Giant cats?
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That's that EEEVIL Eurocentrism I've heard about, isn't it?
In any case, I agree completely. Primitive people are more than capable of screwing up the ecology without any help from the rest of us, and are generally too ignorant and poor to have any real chance of doing anything other than screwing things up....
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Humans have started to heavily wreck the environment long before modern times, yes.
This is hardly surprising. Humans were neophytes almost everywhere and disrupted the local fauna and flora. They also multiplied like rabbits.
But this has become a global problem now, with more than 7 billion of us. The number of existing species is plummeting, just like the number of living animals of all species that are not our pets or cattle. We are the cause of a modern mass extinction event that is very similar to the h
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What continent has all three of those birds?
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One that has heard of 'importing'.
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New Zealanders? (Score:4, Funny)
Had to read this twice before I realised they weren't talking about New Zealanders in general.
Neither New Zealand Inhabitants nor Fruit (Score:2)
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Yeah, what has biology ever done for us...
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Rather not. "Bananas on a plane" sounds more like something you get from Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker.
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When I was a kid the fruit was called chinese goosberry
Where Is My Lunch? (Score:2)
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plenty of ostrich ranches are still in business. and emu ranches too. Eight out of ten business startups fail anyway, regardless of what the business is.
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still in business yes, but the operating now at more realistic prices and production levels for such a niche product.
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yup, just like any other new startup space
Re:Where Is My Lunch? (Score:5, Informative)
My folks raised ostriches, rheas, and emus during the breeder's market craze. I think the most we paid for an adult breeding pair was $35k. The ostriches laid anywhere from 40-60 eggs/yr, sometimes more, which we incubated and hatched. Ostrich chicks were sold for $1500-3000/ea at a few days to a few weeks old. Our facilities were inspected by the USDA and we were licensed by them. Occasionally we would sell fertile eggs for ~$1000/ea.
Consider a cow that requires grazing space and has one, maybe two calves a year. An ostrich pair can produce >40x the many offspring in less space and the chicks mature to slaughter age in 14 months, the same as a cow. A single male can service a dozen females and this can all be done in a few acres of land, with less waste products as well. Our rheas were much more prolific, with one of our breeding pairs churning out over 120 fertile eggs per year. Our emus didn't produce well.
The ostrich cornea was said to be compatible with humans, the feathers are in demand, and the leather is strong and light. Even the egg shells have been used by Faberge and others. I didn't really care for an ostrich egg omlette but the meat is low in both cholesterol and fat like chicken or turkey meat but is a red meat. The adults weigh around 300lbs.
There were sometimes problems though. We had issues with egg shells that were too thick where the chicks couldn't peck through it and we would have to drill through the shell and help them hatch. Impaction was a big issue as the chicks would basically eat so much grass they would get bound up and couldn't get any nutrients. I did the autopsies. They will also eat any shiny piece of metal or nails and die. And if their body grows too fast, their legs cannot support the weight and they get bowed legs and other leg problems. The older birds will sometimes die just from the stress of being moved. We had a yearling once that walked on a slick surface and lost its footing, blowing out its knees and there's little you can do to help them recover from that. These problems aren't intractable, the poultry industry has solved a lot of them, and some of it was due to our own ignorance about proper feeding schedules and diet.
I still think there are merits for eating ostrich meat over cow meat. I feel like an ostrich farm can scale larger than a cow farm with less environmental impact. But I just don't think Americans want to eat ostriches.
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Most Americans would be eager to eat ostriches if they'd ever interacted with one.
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No, we definitely do not need more ostrich farms and more of these 'solutions'.
Explains the big eggs? (Score:1)
Radio interview with reasearcher (Score:2)