[ad_1]
An artist's rendition of elephant birds. According to a new study, elephant birds are not only nocturnal, they may also be blind. The researchers from University of Texas at Austin digitally recreated the brains of the giant avians using two skulls and CT-imaging. ( John Maisano for the University of Texas at the Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. )
Scientists have unlocked new information about giant elephant birds
On the subject of the reconstructed brain, scientists from the University of Texas at Austin revealed that these incredible avians were nocturnal and likely blind.
The findings were published on Oct. 31 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Reconstructing Elephant Bird Brains
From their reconstruction of the creature's brain, the scientists found that the optic lobe or part of the bird was tiny. This discovery made them believe that the creatures were nocturnal and blind.
These same traits are also present with the elephant birds' closest relative living, the kiwis of New Zealand.
This is a surprise because it provides a number of assumptions about elephant birds with other big birds, flightless birds such as emus and ostriches. However, emus and ostriches are most active during the day. They have better eyesight than kiwis and, likely, elephant birds.
"Said Christopher Torres, Ph.D. candidate who led the study. "Discoveries like these give us tremendous insights into the lives of these weird and poorly understood birds."
For the study, the scientists looked at the skulls of two species of elephant birds. They used CT-imaging to create digital reconstructions called endocasts of the brains of the giant avians. The scientists also created endocasts of the close living and extinct relatives of the elephant birds.
Elephant Bird Extinction
The endocasts of the brains of the elephant birds also allowed the scientists to come into the past, especially the kind of habitat the creatures had before they disappeared on the surface of the Earth. From the endocasts, they were able to study the part of the brain responsible for processing the creatures' sense of smell.
One of the skulls had a bigger olfactory bulb, for example, suggesting that the creature might have lived in a forest. Meanwhile, a smaller bulb is associated with grasslands.
Elephant birds started dying out between 500 and 1,000 years ago. Scientists believe that their extinction was a mix of human meddling (hunting) and loss of habitat.
Ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
[ad_2]
Source link
