[HN Gopher] What's the Biggest Bird in the World?
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What's the Biggest Bird in the World?
Author : sohkamyung
Score : 19 points
Date : 2022-07-20 05:44 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
| onychomys wrote:
| This article lead me down a wiki wormhole where I eventually came
| across this HG Wells story about a guy who's marooned on a
| deserted island with an elephant bird:
|
| https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Stolen_Bacillus_and_Other...
| hulitu wrote:
| Albatros ! Albatros !
| btilly wrote:
| An albatross has half the wingspan and 1/3 the weight of these
| monsters.
|
| Albatrosses are not even the largest flying birds alive today.
| The Andean Condor holds that crown.
| peanut_worm wrote:
| Wandering Albatross have a wider wingspan than Andean Condors
| on average if I am not mistaken
| btilly wrote:
| Huh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_albatross
| confirms. Longer wingspan (by 1 foot), but lighter bird.
| fit2rule wrote:
| Maursault wrote:
| I thought so at first, but then I realized it's a trick
| question. In fact, the biggest bird _in_ the world is the cave
| swallow, _P. f. pallida_ , with a wingspan of 4.2"-4.4".
| btilly wrote:
| The largest flying bird in the article had a wingspan of 24 feet
| and an estimated weight of 90 pounds.
|
| By contrast the largest pterosaur was _Quetzalcoatlus northropi_
| with a wingspan estimated around 36 feet and a weight around 500
| pounds. (Fun trivia, its outstretched middle finger, half that
| wing, is the longest vertebrate digit in the fossil record.)
|
| Why did pterosaurs get so much bigger? Because of a simple quirk
| of vertebrate genetics!
|
| It turns out that there are things which are evolutionarily easy
| to change (like your overall size, or when you hit puberty) and
| things that are essentially impossible. One of the things that is
| essentially impossible is the sequencing of when different parts
| of your body hit growth spurts. Hands+feet grow relatively early,
| but arms and legs only catch up near adulthood. It's cute when
| puppies and human babies have big hands and feet but stubby arms
| and legs. However it has consequences for flying vertebrates.
|
| Birds have a wind that is all made out of their arms. Bats have a
| wing that is half arm, then half hand. Therefore both birds and
| bats are unable to fly until near adulthood because their arms
| have not yet grown yet, so their wings can't support their
| weight. This imposes a huge parenting burden as the young have to
| be taken care of. And the bigger the adult size, the bigger the
| parenting burden!
|
| But pterosaurs had a wing constructed entirely out of their
| hands! Because hands grow early, models say that pterosaurs
| should have been able to fly from birth. Fossils of juvenile
| pterosaurs that died at sea confirm that they actually could. And
| because of that a large pterosaur would not impose a parenting
| burden, which means that pterosaurs were free to grow much larger
| than birds or bats.
|
| This did not become important until birds evolved. Animals tend
| to compete through specialization. Each species focuses on what
| it is best at, and then they coexist. But feathers are more
| aerodynamic than a pterodactyl's fur. Therefore birds flew faster
| and farther while using less energy. The only thing that a
| pterosaur was better than a bird at was being big. So after birds
| appeared, the small pterosaurs all disappeared, and the big ones
| got REALLY big!
| herodoturtle wrote:
| This was an awesome comment just wanted to say thanks!
| rex_lupi wrote:
| Absolutely fascinating! Hope you didn't just make it all up /s
| btilly wrote:
| I did not make it up.
|
| The size of pterodactyls;
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus
|
| Pterodactyls could fly from birth:
| https://www.newscientist.com/article/2284950-baby-
| pterosaurs...
|
| And the bit on _Resource Partitioning_ in
| https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/ecology-
| ap/co... has the principle that in the presence of
| competition, animals focus on whatever niche lets them
| outcompete.
|
| But while I'm throwing out trivia on flight, have you ever
| wondered why bats only fly at night? It is because their
| wings have very thin skin. This is an even better aerodynamic
| surface than feathers, but offers them NO protection from
| sunburn!
| gennarro wrote:
| Had the same exact thought. Thank you!
| leavethegun wrote:
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(page generated 2022-07-20 23:02 UTC)