Fossilized Bird Brains May Yield Secret of First Flights

Live Science ^ | January 1, 2011 | Charles Q. Choi

[decimon]

By reconstructing the brains of extinct birds, researchers could shed light on when birds evolved into creatures of flight.

Overwhelming evidence suggests birds evolved from dinosaurs some 150 million years ago, but one of the missing pieces to the evolutionary puzzle is how such birds took to the air.

Scientists in Scotland are focusing on changes in the size of a part of the rear of the brain. This part of the cerebellum, known as the flocculus, is responsible for integrating visual and balance signals during flight, allowing birds to judge the position of other objects in midflight. [3-D Image of Raven Brain]

"We believe we can discover how the flocculus has evolved to deal with different flying abilities, giving us new information about when birds first evolved the power of flight," said project leader Stig Walsh, senior curator of vertebrate palaeobiology at National Museums Scotland.

[decimon]

[decimon]

Ping

[Cisco Nix]

Fossilized Bird Brains. Bet it was a democrat.

[Track9]

And here I thought they found the origins of the Dimocrat party.

[centurion316]

There are several fossilized bird brains around here. They get together every morning for breakfast at Hardee’s. I don’t think that they have done any flying for years.

[digger48]

IBTHTP

[elcid1970]

“Fossilized Bird Brains”

That’s insensitive and sexist! How dare you make fun of Katie Couric, you pig, I mean ..... uh, wait a second, this really is about paleology, isn’t it?

Sorry.........................

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Thanks decimon. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[djf]

Fossilized bird brains???

Dim sum???

[Cisco Nix]

Yeah, I see a bunch of them every morning putting nutmeg in their Starbucks, fat and wearing gym close like they are going to work out. It they do go to the spa it's to sit in the filthy swill of a Jacuzzi.

[LoneStarGI]

Dangit, beat me to it.

[calex59]

Overwhelming evidence suggests birds evolved from dinosaurs some 150 million years ago

This sentence is a lie, unless they uncovered "overwhelming evidence" in the last day or so. There is absolutely NO evidence birds evolved from Dinos, except for a few fake fossils that were manufactured in China and exposed for the fakes they are. Common sense says that if any Dinos evolved into birds it would be the ones who already could fly, not ground bound raptors.

[AndrewB]

I believe one of these is in order....

[Beowulf9]

“Scientists in Scotland are focusing on changes in the size of a part of the rear of the brain. This part of the cerebellum, known as the flocculus, is responsible for integrating visual and balance signals during flight, allowing birds to judge the position of other objects in midflight.”

Am I being farfetched to say THIS is farfetched? Seems rather presumptuous to believe they can be so sure the prehistoric cerebellum was totally understood to the point we can judge their secrets of flight.?

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Sorry, I thought this was a thread about the Senate.

[Islander7]

OK, I admit it, reading the title my first thought was Joe Biden.

[Condor51]

Fossilized Bird Brains ...