scasimir's blog

The first classification of taxonomy was proposed by Francis Willoughby and John Ray and Linnaeus used that same model of classification to begin his research on taxonomy. His model was strictly based on how to order species into groups but it had nothing to do with evolutionary relationships. Birds were mainly grouped into the aquatic or terrestrial habitats but not until after Darwin published his work of evolution that scientists started using his idea of bird’s classification, behavior, and morphology.

Speciation is more common in Aves classes mainly because they can geographically isolated from their original population due to migration. There are evidence that we see in birds that lived in Galapagos island, and the Hawaiian archipelagos. Differences in geography can have a big impact on one population than the other causing species to evolve and adapt.

Scientific names are essential when classifying birds. Taxonomy is the study of naming  and classifying different organisms to make connections between different species. In order to do classification, there are important steps and rules taxonomists must follow to classify birds into the correct category.

 

There are three main evolutionary processes that are responsible for evolution. The first one is phyletic evolution, which refers to a gradual change of lineages and relates one specie to another. The second one is speciation, the separation of phyletic lineage into multiple ones. Lastly extinction, the end of a lineage. However, extinction erased relationships among related species because species need other species to connect with otherwise it cannot happen if there is no species left. Species are the fundamental units for classification. There are numerous number of birds species due to different shape, color, habitat, songs and niches. Species are refer to how a single organism can reproduce and creates one or more offspring. Birds have a great amount of advantages when it comes to reproduction because they can migrate in a larger range than terrestrial animals, which makes them diverse.

 

Why do birds migrate? scientists did not have a solid explanation on how or why do birds migrate, but based on discoveries and technology, scientists determine that birds migrate from one place to another depending on the seasons. When it is cold, they migrate from colder temperature to warm places and they also avoid dry places where it does not rain often. When migration season happens in North America, birds have the tendency to move from North to South direction. It is known that most migratory birds breed in the south and returns to the north because of warmer weather, better resources such as food, and mates to help them prepare for breeding season. The two major seasons that birds migrate are spring and fall. However, during the winter most birds die because of the cold, diseases or starvation, and that is why some birds reproduce many offspring in a year. Migration is the most efficient way for birds to survive and reproduce.

There is no specific answer to why birds migrate. However, there are some factors that lead to the benefits of migration. For example, birds can escape predation in certain seasons, or find better resources such as food and water elsewhere than others. Some places are more suitable for breeding than others. Birds travel to find a place to live, reproduce, and nest. Depending on the climate or the temperature, different type of bird population appears at different timing. In unpredictable weather habitats, both migratory and non-migratory birds live together.

The two major seasons that birds migrate are spring and fall. The first study that took place was in the 1960s and it was based on finding quantitative data about migratory birds. The radar that was used was a weather radar in order to figure out how birds move around. Bird cast is one of the famous bird tracking device. There are other ways to find how birds migrate by using microphones on roofs top to study birds migration and it can also record bird calls to locate them. Radar is a strong technique used to track birds. Military and weather radars can be used to track birds movement, how high and how fast they fly, also compass orientation. Weather radar can also monitor birds migration activity.

In the old times, naturalists did not have a solid explanation on how birds migrated. Aristotle found out that cranes migrated seasonally. Based on discoveries and technology, we all know that land birds fly one place to another depending on the seasons. When migration season happens in North America, birds usually to move north to south direction. It is known that most migratory birds breed in the south and returns to the north. Birds living in the southern hemisphere will not migrate to the north as much as the northern birds travel. Some birds only travel during the day, others at night, or even both such as the waterfowl and shorebirds. Birds can fly as high as 2000-4000 meters and sometimes much higher and every bird has different altitude level that they can travel.

The first thing that I noticed was the letters, whoever added the letters on the photos used different fronts for them and they also bigger than the others. For examples in the first photo, letter "B" is bigger than the other "B" and darker. It could be that the person wanted others to be able to identify which letter is which when he or she is talking about when presenting these photos.

When I look at the maps there is a part on there which is the United States that separates the States and you can identify them easily but on the second map you can't really identify the States very well. There is a tiny region on the second way down after you pass the US region that is highlighted in red and on the second map it was not highlighted. On the first map Florida is in red but on the second map it is in gray.

The pictures of the flowers were taken at a different angle. The first A is futher away than the second A and it is more zoomed in. On the other hand, it's the opposite for letter B, the first photo is closer than the second one and I can see the bench more on the first picture than the second B. In the first picture (A ), there is another red flower on top of the main one in focus but on the second photo I can see multiples flowers even though they are not clear but you can still see them.

Besides the number of chromosomes that help identified the difference between humans and chimpanzees, there are other key factors that make humans and chimpanzees related. The size of the human and chimp genome is similar. Genome sequences of humans and chimps are 98.8% the same. Chromosomes in human and chimpanzee and their mean of divergence of chromosomes are the same. Further, the mean divergence of non polymorphic sites and CpG sites are also similar.The number of nucleotide substitutions is 35 million. Also, the number of insertions and deletions are 5 million. The total amount of insertions and deletions is 90 Mb. Nucleotide divergence of the mitochondrial genomes is similar. You can find 66% gene duplications in both genomes. Finally, bout 29% of the human and chimp orthologous proteins are similar.

The main genetic difference between chimpanzees and humans is the number of chromosomes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes whereas chimpanzee have 24 pairs of chromosomes in their genomes. The human genome contains 46 chromosomes while chimp genome contains 48 chromosomes. Humans and chimpanzees have 1.2% of non-coding DNA difference in their genomes that are responsible for all the unmatching characteristics of humans and chimpanzees. The size of the human and chimpanzee genome is similar, they have about 66% gene duplications in both genomes and 29% of the human and chimpanzee orthologous proteins are also very similar.