GD_American posted:

Why does it say "advance a road" and not "cut a tunnel"

senrath posted:

I believe a road is a specific type of tunnel.

Invalid Validation posted:

Say goodbye to your lungs I guess.

prisoner of waffles posted:

One of the shots seems to show a spray of water on the spinning bits,

Vlaphor posted:

Computer viking posted:

Budgies are apparently also quite fond of cooked chicken and will steal it off your plate. Or maybe my partner just grew up with especially bloodthirsty ones.

Computer viking posted:

Budgies are apparently also quite fond of cooked chicken and will steal it off your plate. Or maybe my partner just grew up with especially bloodthirsty ones.

There Bias Two posted:

It's not weird for birds to eat other birds. We're mammals and eat other mammals routinely. People have a habit of viewing birds monolithically for some reason, rather than the diverse creatures that they are.

There Bias Two posted:

It's not weird for birds to eat other birds. We're mammals and eat other mammals routinely. People have a habit of viewing birds monolithically for some reason, rather than the diverse creatures that they are.

Sagebrush posted:

Reminder that birds are dinosaurs.

And I mean literally. Like the most current scientific classification for the clade is that birds are not only related to or descended from dinosaurs, but are the only remaining living dinosaurs.

Turrurrurrurrrrrrr posted:

Wolf taming meme but instead it's a velociraptor turned into a chicken.

There Bias Two posted:

It's not weird for birds to eat other birds. We're mammals and eat other mammals routinely. People have a habit of viewing birds monolithically for some reason, rather than the diverse creatures that they are.

Sagebrush posted:

Reminder that birds are dinosaurs.

And I mean literally. Like the most current scientific classification for the clade is that birds are not only related to or descended from dinosaurs, but are the only remaining living dinosaurs.

wesleywillis posted:

Alright egghead, explain that poo poo.
Like these birds, chickens, sparrows, hawks, ostriches etc weren't actually living during the dinosaur age. There were probably other birds (as we know them to be today) living then, but are they all dead now? Are there still some bird species that lived during dinosaur times that are still around?

I know there are some fish that currently exist that were also living during the dinosaur times, like Bowfin, and Gar. People alwas call them "dinosaurs" because they were around back then. Are they not considered actually dinosaurs because they're fish, and don't breathe air with lungs?

Sagebrush posted:

Have you seen current reconstructions of velociraptor? It basically is a chicken.

Sagebrush posted:

Have you seen current reconstructions of velociraptor? It basically is a chicken.

Quorum posted:

I'm not entirely sure that T-posing aggressively at a velociraptor is the correct approach, but who am I to question a workplace safety poster?

Captain Hygiene posted:

Pfft, lame. I've owned roosters scarier than that thing

wesleywillis posted:

Alright egghead, explain that poo poo.
Like these birds, chickens, sparrows, hawks, ostriches etc weren't actually living during the dinosaur age. There were probably other birds (as we know them to be today) living then, but are they all dead now? Are there still some bird species that lived during dinosaur times that are still around?

I know there are some fish that currently exist that were also living during the dinosaur times, like Bowfin, and Gar. People alwas call them "dinosaurs" because they were around back then. Are they not considered actually dinosaurs because they're fish, and don't breathe air with lungs?

`Nemesis posted:

a whole bunch of animals that we call herbivores will opportunistically eat meat if given the chance, it's pretty normal

Turrurrurrurrrrrrr posted:

You wouldn't eat a goon

Turrurrurrurrrrrrr posted:

Wolf taming meme but instead it's a velociraptor turned into a chicken.

wesleywillis posted:

Alright egghead, explain that poo poo.
Like these birds, chickens, sparrows, hawks, ostriches etc weren't actually living during the dinosaur age. There were probably other birds (as we know them to be today) living then, but are they all dead now? Are there still some bird species that lived during dinosaur times that are still around?

I know there are some fish that currently exist that were also living during the dinosaur times, like Bowfin, and Gar. People alwas call them "dinosaurs" because they were around back then. Are they not considered actually dinosaurs because they're fish, and don't breathe air with lungs?

Turrurrurrurrrrrrr posted:

Wolf taming meme but instead it's a velociraptor turned into a chicken.

Shifty Nipples posted:

non avian dinosaurs went extinct avian ones didn't

MrQwerty posted:

Also dimetrodons turned into people

MrQwerty posted:

Also dimetrodons turned into people

ellie the beep posted:

...they are my favourite bird, ...

ellie the beep posted:

okay so the thing is YES there were other birds living before the K-T extinction event and all modern birds are directly descended from the survivors, which you already knew

'dinosaur' can in common usage mean 'alive at the time of the dinosaurs or otherwise prehistoric' but as a scientific term specifically it refers to the creatures and their descendents of clade dinosauria, the majority of which are ornithischian (bird-hipped, gallimimus and pachycephalosaurus, all extinct), sauropod/saurischian (lizard-footed/hipped, brontosaurus and ankylosaurus, all extinct) and theropods (beast-footed, velociraptor and tyrannosaurus rex, mostly extinct); all birds are descended from theropods, and are thus cladistically dinosaurs; from the fossil record there are about three dozen basal species of what we would call birds well-represented but the vast majority of modern birds look way different so,

it sounds like the question you are asking is 'are there birds alive today that are not appreciably different from a more basal ancestor who existed prior to the asteroid, a la the coelocanth', and the answer to my great delight is YES!!!

the Hoatzin


https://www.flickr.com/photos/43555660@N00/5479759823/

the hoatzin is native to the amazon and orinoco river basin and the fossil record for them suggests they are the final survivor of their order - they are theropods of class aves but thats as close as they are related to any other bird; while it does suggest there have been some general morphological variation by and large this is the same format that it used to be

these birds hatch with claws on their forelimbs, because their primary nest defensive strategy is to roost about twenty feet up in a branch hanging out over the water and just jump out into the river below if anything comes near, then swim back to the tree and climb all the way back up to the nest

they are capable of fully-independent quadrupedal motion which NO other living bird can do because all of them invented synchronized flapping; when other birds swim they are limited to butterfly stroke technique while the hoatzin chick freestyles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uz_-_FE3UU

their diet is almost entirely comprised of leafs, which again pretty much totally unique; florivory (the eating of flowers and their products i.e seeds and fruits) is very very common but obligate folivory (only leafs as food) is as far as i am aware totally unique among birds to hoatzin - because leafs are nutritionally garbage and difficult to digest, hoatzin have an oversized crop which acts as a fermentation predigester, much like how cows have multiple stomachs; however, the microbiome that helps with the fermentation also make the birds smell awful, giving rise to common names of stink bird and poo poo pheasant

this is in fact a benefit on multiple fronts, because it makes them severely unappetizing targets except in dire need, which is great because the crop is so dramatically oversized that it actively displaces muscles that would otherwise be used for flight, which in conjunction with the independent limbs means they are extremely clumsy fliers and so cannot easily escape predation (hence their 'jump into the river and swim away' strategy)

they are my favourite bird, and while not as directly unchanged as the coelocanth is still pretty drat close to archaeopteryx