Wednesday, April 13, 2011

BIRDS INHERITED INTELLIGENCE OF SMELL FROM DINOSAURS AND ENHANCED IT


Pigeons may not inspire the same atmosphere of fear as a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but they present at birth their intelligence of smell from such primitive killers. Birds are known additional for their flying skills and their senses of idea and stability than for their sense of smell. According to conformist wisdom, the sense of smell declined throughout the transition from dinosaurs to birds as the right mind of vision and balance were enhanced for flight. But latest research published in the present day by scientists at the University of Calgary, the Royal Tyrrell Museum and Ohio University deals that millions of years ago, the winged critters also boasted an improved sense for scents than their dinosaur associates.
"It was previously supposed that birds were so eventful rising vision, balance and bringing together for flight that their intelligence of smell was scaled way back," said by Dr. Darla Zelenitsky, Paleontology Assistant Professor of University of Calgary and guide author of the paper published in the magazine Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "astonishingly, our research shows that the intelligence of smell really enhanced during the dinosaur-bird transition, just like vision and balance."

The research group used modern CT scan technology to observe the skulls of dinosaurs and dead birds to decide the size of the creatures' olfactory bulbs, an element of the brain concerned in the intelligence of smell. Among modern-day birds and mammals, superior bulbs match to a sensitive intelligence of smell. The study of fossils exposed attractive information about the development of the sense of smell in the middle of early birds.



"The oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx, present at birth its sense of stink from small meat-eating dinosaurs about 150 million years ago," said by Dr. François Therrien, guardian of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. "Afterward, around 95 million years ago, the predecessor of all recent birds evolved still better olfactory capabilities." The grouping of a keener sense of smell, fine vision and synchronization in early latter-day birds comprise could proved beneficial to familiarize themselves when flying and to look for food, mates, or appropriate habitats. 

The group was capable to evaluate some ancient and recent animals under study. They exposed that earliest birds, like Archaeopteryx, had a sense of smell alike to pigeons. Turkey vultures and albatrosses are birds fine known for their eager sense of smell, which they make use to search for food or find the way over huge areas," said by Zelenitsky. "Our detection that small Velociraptor-like dinosaurs, such as Bambiraptor, had an intelligence of smell as residential as these birds suggests that smell may have played a significant role whereas these dinosaurs sought for food." The study originate that among modern-day birds, the extra primitive species, such as ducks and flamingos, have appealing huge olfactory bulbs whereas the birds with the smallest olfactory bulbs are the ones we see every day the perching birds at our feeders and the parrots in our bird cages.

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