Chapter 1

Question 1

Characteristics of birds

Answer 1

• vertibrates
• bipedal
• 4 chambered hearts
• unidirectional lungs
• endothermic (102F-109F)
• calcium carbonate eggshells
• syrinx (extensive sound capabilities)
• see some ultraviolet
• can hear above and below our range

Question 2

Kingdom of birds

Answer 2

Anamalia

Question 3

Phylum of birds

Answer 3

Chordata

Question 4

Class of birds

Answer 4

Aves

Question 5

How many orders?

Answer 5

40 orders

Question 6

How many genera?

Answer 6

> 2,000 genera

Question 7

How many families?

Answer 7

247 families

Question 8

How many species?

Answer 8

> 10,500 species (range 10k-11k)

Question 9

Estimate of how many individuals?

Answer 9

300 billion individuals

Question 10

Describe feathers

Answer 10

filamentous, soft, flexible, lightweight

Question 11

Use of feathers

Answer 11

• flight
• insulation
• repelling water
• camouflage
• attraction of mates
• social communication

Question 12

Describe beak/bill

Answer 12

Horny sheaths that cover jaws

Question 13

What is the upper beak on birds called?

Answer 13

Maxilla

Question 14

What is the lower beak on birds called?

Answer 14

Mandible

Question 15

What is the horny sheath that is the bill called?

Answer 15

Rhamphotheca

Question 16

What are the maxilla and mandible reinforced with?

Answer 16

Struts called trabeculae

Question 17

What is the gizzard?

Answer 17

• hollow organ in digestive tract that helps to digest unchewed food.
• Muscular organ with a hardeded inner surface with ridges or tooth-ike projections to grind up food.

Question 18

How are birds adapted for flight?

Answer 18

• hollow bones (w/ trabeculae) and light
• fusion of bones in hands (carpometacarpus), legs (tibiotarsus, tarsometatarsus), tail (pygostyle), pelvis, and head
• furcula (fuzed clavicles) acts as a spring to help power flight
• keeled sternum
• uncinate processes on ribs

Question 19

What is the furcula?

Answer 19

The “wishbone”, the two clavicles fused together

Question 20

What is the pygostyle?

Answer 20

The last few vertibae fused together to support muscels and tail feathers for flight control and stability

Question 21

Function of keeled sternum

Answer 21

To support the massive pectoral muscles needed for flight

Question 22

What are uncinate processes?

Answer 22

Projections from ribs to connect to one another to allow more rigidness that other ribs (ribs cannot compress as much).

Question 23

Birds do not have muscles past their heel, so how do they perch/ grasp something?

Answer 23

The muscles that cause the feet to grasp are found above the ankle/heel, with tendons that extend to the feet. When the muscles contract, it pulls on the tendons. When a bird pulls legs up, their feet automatically close.

Question 24

What is the hallux?

Answer 24

The first toe. In most birds, the hallux extends backwards to form an arragement called anisodactyl.

Question 25

Describe anisodactyl feet.

Answer 25

Three toes facing forward and one (the hallux or first toe) pointing backwards.

Question 26

What causes variation in birds?

Answer 26

Variation in traits has arisen through the process of adaptation via natural selection.

Question 27

What is natural selection?

Answer 27

Natural selection refers to the differential survival of individuals with adventageous, heritable traints.

Question 28

What happened to the galapagos finches from 1976 to 1978?

Answer 28

During a bad drought, the food available for the galapagos finches changed. There were fewer small seeds and more large seeds. This caused bills that were larger to become favored, and therefore more common.

Question 29

What is adaptive radiation?

Answer 29

A process by which organsisms diversify from an ancestral species into a variety of new forms, particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources abailable or opens new environmental niches.

Question 30

How are Hawaiin Honeycreepers examples of adaptive radiation?

Answer 30

One origional bird came to Hawaii, and the organisms diversified and created many species of birds whoes bills changed and diversified based on the food source or niche they filled. (ie netar or seeds)