Wild Things: Giant Pandas, an Ancient Ibis and More...
Panda-friendly forests, one bizarre bird and foxes on junk food
- By Arcynta Ali Childs, T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Laura Helmuth and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, March 2011
Xenicibis xympithecus. (Nicholas Longrich / Yale University)
Name: Xenicibis xympithecus, an ibis that lived in Jamaica about 10,000 years ago.
Flight? Not an option; this bird had a bizarre wing that ended with an enlarged and thickened "hand" bone.
Fight? It must have, say researchers at Yale and the Smithsonian Institution. The bird's wings were hinged so that the massive hand bone could be flung at a target, like nunchucks. Fossilized Xenicibis hand bones show evidence of combat trauma. Other birds hit enemies with their wings, but "no animal has ever evolved anything quite like this," says Nicholas Longrich of Yale.
Additional Sources
“Whistling in caterpillars (Amorpha juglandis, Bombycoidea): sound-producing mechanism and function,” Veronica L. Bura et al., Journal of Experimental Biology, December 8, 2010
“Stable isotopes evaluate exploitation of anthropogenic foods by the endangered San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica),” Seth D. Newsome et al., Journal of Mammalogy, December 2010
“The bizarre wing of the Jamaica flightless ibis Xenicibis xympithecus: a unique vertebrate adaptation,” Nicholas R. Longrich and Storrs L. Olson, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, January 5, 2011
“Old-growth forest is what giant pandas really need,” Zejun Zhang et al., Biology Letters, January 12, 2011
“One haploid parent contributes 100% of the gene pool for a widespread species in northwest North America,” E. F. Karlin et al., December 28, 2010
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