Modern Birds : The Neornithes

     Are birds really dinosaurs or are they simply related? That is a question that has gained new life in recent years due to the overwhelming facts the are pouring in from newly found fossils and studies from fossils that have been found in the past. Two groups have formed in the study of this question: those who believe birds are a direct result of dinosaurs and those who feel dinosaurs and birds must have had a common ancestor. Determining which view is correct is a matter of opinion based on fact. The main problem involves the use of cladistics or phylogenetic systematics to group organisms according to characteristics they share. When one looks at dinosaur fossils, he or she may feel that certain

Compare and Contrast Essay Jane Carr 10/11/14 Eng 1P Block 3 The book “The Birds” by Daphne DuMaurier, and the movie “The Birds” directed by Alfred Hitchcock both had many similarities and differences. The movie featured new and different characters and different settings as well. One scene that showed a similarity between the book and the movie, was the scene where Nat Hocken’s window sill was a perch to half a dozen birds.

Since the beginning of time, people have always wondered why birds sing and chirp. The answer lies in “The Legend of the Birds.” Here is how it goes… Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a tree that reached to the heavens. Inside this tree there lived all the birds in the world of different breeds, color, shapes, and sizes. Now each bird lived peacefully in the tree speaking the language that humans do today. The flock of the birds included laws about obeying the rules, how to act, and the most important rule, which was to never travel to the land of the Pandas, Pandaria.

‘The Yellow Birds,’ written by veteran Kevin Powers, narrates the experiences of John Bartle in the midst of the Iraq war. Subsequent to witnessing demise of his war associate Murph, he endeavours to disclose the situation by discarding his corpse into the Tigris River and claiming he never found him. The story changes back and forth each chapter, between the battle in Al Tafar, Iraq and his post-war life in the USA in order to portray the powerlessness and inner enslavement felt by Bart. The novel details his internal struggle to reconcile the veracity of the situation with the perceived inevitable outrage from Murph’s mother. The utilisation of evocative and graphic language in order to bolster the reoccurring theme of brutality is prevalent whilst the author simultaneously upholds a sense of beauty. Powers strikes this balance through the use of imagery, juxtaposition and through referring to the surrounding environment and landscape.

Disregarding the feathers of Longisquama, and therefore disregarding its link to Archaeopteryx, these scientists still fully support the dinosaur-bird link. As mentioned before, the extreme majority of paleontologists still subscribe to this idea. A recent discovery in the western region of China seems to clarify the link between dinosaurs and birds. Living at roughly the same time as Archaeopteryx, Sinovenator changii is very closely related to the bird yet is classified as a dinosaur.5

One of the first rockets to fly was a wooden bird. Aulus Gellius, a Roman, wrote a story of Archytas, a Greek who lived in Tarentum. Tarentum is in modern day southern Italy. Approximately 400 B.C., Archytas entertained the people of Tarentum with flying a wooden pigeon. Steam pushed the bird that was on suspended wires. The bird used the action-reaction principle. It was not until the seventeenth century that the action-reaction principle was not a scientific law. That means that Archytas creation of the wooden pigeon was way before its time.

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden won the 2014 Canada Reads competition. The novel highlights a dark aspect of European first contact with the North American Aboriginal population. It connects human interaction with the earth and spirit life followed by First Nations people, with foreign French Jesuit missionaries. It acts as a novel that can inspire change within the nation as Bird is a Huron warrior adopts an Iroquois girl named Snow Fall, and their experience with Christophe the French missionary who is brought to the New World. Their interacts quickly become complicated as the French religion conversion mission is then challenged by inter-tribe rivalry’s. This paper will discuss the role of history in Boydens work, the relationship between Bird

In this quote, the birds feathers represent the Feather archetype in that the feathers symbolize lightness, the old fairy forced the maidens to sing because she enjoyed the light, angelic sound of their voices. The archetype further serves the Grimms brothers characterization of the old fairy as it shows that since she was so old she just wanted to experience the lightness that youths bring. Even, when Jorindel discovered the room with all bird cages, the old fairy continued to try and get away with what she wanted.

The order Falconiformes is less unified than other orders of birds. Specific features of particular groups resulted from similar ways of life, which gives the Falconiformes similar adaptations. Taxonomy systems even divide this order into three orders of Vultures, Raptors and Falconids. The most frequent classification, under which 295 species are divided into 5 families: Cathartidae, Pandionidae, Accipitridae, Sagittariidae and Falconidae. Falconids (Falconidae) includes 61 species from almost all over the world.

However, the proposed phylogeny is rather questionable regarding the relationships of other taxa and must therefore be considered hypothetical pending further research; considering biogeographically data, it is very likely to be erroneous. All that can be presently said with any certainty is that the ancestors of the didine birds were pigeons from Southeast Asia or the Wallacea, which agrees with the origin of most of the Mascarenes' birds. Whether the dodo and Rodriguez Solitaire were actually closest to the Nicobar Pigeon among the living birds, or whether they are closer to other groups of the same radiation such as Ducula, Treron, or Goura pigeons is not clear at the moment.

A familiar sight seen in cities and towns around the world, the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia), or colloquially known as the common city pigeon, is a widespread animal that is hard to miss during a casual stroll on the street. City pigeons can typical be found even in crowded sidewalks or public places near discarded food or nesting on public structures. These animals can also be found around farmland and fields. Rock pigeons are an Old World species originally native from Europe to North Africa and India and introduced to North America in the early 1600s by European colonists to Atlantic coast settlements. However, since rock pigeons have such a long history as one of the few birds so closely associated with humans, it is difficult to determine the species’ original range (Johnston 2014). Rock pigeons are non-migratory but can still navigate with the earth’s magnetic fields, sound, smell, position of the sun, and other homing abilities. In other words, they are able to find their way home even when displaced very far away. Wild populations of rock pigeons vary in body size and come in many different plumage patterns, shades, and colors. Today, most rock pigeons are free-living and usually feed on the ground, favoring urban settings where food is available.

There are no real predators in the country and by having no threat, many of the birds evolved into not having wings to fly. The kiwi is one of those birds. The forest that these birds used to inhabit were almost wiped out by its first European settlers. Since coming to the island nation, man has obliterated nearly 75% of the trees. This deforestation devastated the country and even made some animals go extinct to include the Haast’s Eagle (Holdaway, 2013). New Zealand gained its isolation by breaking off from Australia about 25 million years ago. After breaking off, the southern island formed its mountainous region by crashing into the Alpine Fault, which formed the Southern Alps. They are located on the southern main island of New Zealand. The mountain range has caused the southern island to have two different climates. The west side of the island is mostly rainy while the east side is semi-arid because of the 9800 ft peaks blocking rain clouds from reaching it. The southern part of the north island is tropical and has over 2400 hours of sunlight each year. Leading to the northern region of the north island, the farmers and ranchers take advantage of the flat fertile land. From sheep to cow and corn to soybeans, New Zealand is almost a small United States by comparison. The snow season on New Zealand is from around June to October but the north island very rarely sees any

Rarity - Zespri and other producers serve a small niche market due to a specific fruit focus. Zespri has a unique location therefore increasing the rarity of kiwi. The New Zealand government is protecting the kiwi fruit market because they are in the process of eliminating competitors and putting Zespri in a competitive advantage because they are putting a regulation on export activities reducing the number of exporters to six.

New Zealand is a special place as it was the last major land form to be settled as it is separated by large oceans so was largely unknown. Before the first settlers arrived, the country had been isolated for some 85 million years with the result of different plant life, large and flightless birds as well as no ground living mammals (“Conservation – a history”, n.d.).

New Zealand’s landscape has changed extensively since the arrival of humans. Now, native and non-native species of both flora and fauna co-exist. People enjoy having wildlife around them and in recent years there has been a great deal of interest in urban wildlife.