Ornithology, Exam 1

Aristotle

Classification, Development, Territoriality

A. Wilson

“Father of American Ornithology”

J.J. Audobon

William Cooper

• American Zoologist (Conchologist)

• Father of James G. Cooper

• Studies zoology in Europe 1821 - 1824

• Cooper’s Hawk named after him by Charles Lucien Bonaparte

Charles Robert Drawin and Alfred Russell Wallace

James G. Cooper

Namesake of Cooper Ornithological Society

Elliot Coues

Army Surgeon

Spencer Baird

Dickenson College Professor, First curator of Smithsonian Institution

Frank Chapman

• Curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC.

• Started Audubon Christmas Counts in 1900

• Pioneering author of bird field guides

R. Ridgway

From Southern Illinois - Curator of Birds at U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution

A.C. Bent

Authored Life Histories of Birds of North America

Joseph Grinnell

• Author of field notebook technique

• Professor @ UC Berkely

• Museum of vertebrate zoology

Margaret Morse Nice

• Pioneering professional woman scientist that was an American Ornithologist, Ethologist, and Child Psychologist.

• Translated ornithological literature in foreign languages to English

• Wrote Life History of the Song Sparrow

Ludlow Griscom

• Known as the “Dean of the Birdwatchers”

• Principal mentor and influence in having Houghton-Mifflin publish Robert Tory Peterson’s first field guide to the birds in 1934

R. T. Peterson

• Author of the first modern field guide in 1934, Guide to the Birds

• First printing of 2,000 copies sold out in one week during the height of the Great Depression

Allan Dudley Cruickshank

• Worked for National Audubon Society

• American Birds journal

• married to author Helen Gere Gruickshank

M. Broun

• Started working @ Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934

• Became full-time HMS Curator in 1948 - 1966

• Received Honorary Doctor of Science’s from Muhlenberg College and Albright College

Ernst Mayr

• “The Darwin of Modern Times”

• Lifespan: 1904 - 2005

• Considered a Systematist by Dr. Stresemann of the Berlin Zoological Museum

Categories of Bird Interest

1. Birding

2. Listing - just for sport

3. Bird Watching - doing more than just listing

4. Ornithology - study birds

Kingdoms of Living Things

• Monera (Archaebacteria + Eubacteria) - 4,000 spp.

• Protista - 60,000 - 200,000 spp.

• Plantae - 300,000 spp.

• Fungi - 100,000 spp.

• Animalia - 20,000,000 spp.

Phylum Chordata - Animal Kingdom

Subphylum Vertebra

• Class Agnatha

• Class Chondrichthyes

• Class Osteichthyes

• Class Amphibia

• Class Reptilia

• Class Aves

• Class Mammalia

Phylum Chordata Characters

1. Dorsal Hollow Nerve Tube

2. Notochord

3. Gill Slits (Clefts)

Class Aves Characteristics

1. Feathers (Unique to extant birds)

2. Wings

3. Endothermy

Additional Diagnostic Characteristics of Class Aves

1. Bill

2. No teeth

3. Furcula (fused clavicles/wishbone)

4. Single occipital condyle

5. Nucleated red-blood cells

6. Columella (single middle ear bone)

7. Synsacrum - fused thoracic, lumbar, sacral, caudal vertebrae

8. Pygostyle - fused caudal vertebrae

9. Large external egg (Cleidoic = Amniotic = Terrestrial)

10. Differentially developed young

11. Diverse mating systems

12. Avian female is heterogametic (ZW)

13. Diverse life history strategies, longevity (age), survivorship, fecundity, natality, mortality

14. Biogeographic regions and their avifaunas

Adaptations and Preadaptations

1. Morphological = structural

2. Physiological = functional

3. Ethological = behavioral

Theories about the Origins of Flight

1. Arboreal - leaping from branch to branch (Top-Down)

2. Cursorial - running to flying (Ground-Up)

Evolution of Flight

Reduce Weight, Increase Power

Forces:

1. Weight

2. Lift

3. Drag (Profile, Induced)

4. Thrust

Soaring:

1. Thernaks

2. Deflective winds

Value of the Alula (Bastard Wing, False Wing, Spurious Wing)

• helps stalling at slow speeds

• found on a 115-million-year-old goldfinch-size-toothed fossil ornithurine bird in Spain

• Members of the Family Trochilidae (hummingbirds) have no alula

Wing Loading

mass (g) / wing (cm²)

• Passerines: 0.1 - 0.2 g/cm²

• Albatrosses: 1.7 g/cm²

• Murres: 2.6 g/cm²

Diversity Explained By:

1. Phyletic evolution

2. Speciation

3. Extinction