When birds were on top of the food chain

[Pajarita]

This is not about parrots, it's about South American prehistoric birds, collectively called 'Terror Birds' that were the most feared predators and on top of the food chain for tens of millions of years in what used to be South America until Central America 'came up', joining North with South and allowing animals to migrate from the North to the South and vice versa which was the beginning of the end for them because of other predators and climate change. I know I found it to be a very interesting read (especially about the anatomic adaptations for their hunting techniques) so I thought to share it with you, guys, as one never thinks of birds as been on top of the food chain, right?

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150727 ... rror-birds

[Bird woman]

I thought birds were the descendents of dinosaurs, I'll look at link tomarow and mine still think they are at the top of the food chain , just ask the cat I have. BW

[Pajarita]

They are! These were dino birds!

[Bird woman]

Well the way my fingers and arms feel they still are! I went down to a place yesterday to check out finding a professional to set up the new bird room with all the proper lighting and they didn't seem to know where to even start. Does anyone know if the full spectrum lighting is even close to what they would put in a grow room? And I'm not talking about right above the birds or budding my birds out I'm talking about the spectrum of light and quality. There doesn't seem to be any lighting experts around here. I want to do this right I can't stand wasting money on anything but my birds !!! And that's never a waste

[Wolf]

They could install the fixtures for the fluorescent tube type of grow lights in the ceiling and then you just supply the right full spectrum tubes. You would just need to make sure that the length of the fixture is the same as required for the tube type full spectrum lights that you get. I am not sure what lengths the tubes are available in, but I would guess that they would most likely be 32, 36 or 48 inches in length as these are the most common. Or you could use the standard screw in light fixtures and get the bulb type of full spectrum in the right temperature and color ranges for bird.

[Pajarita]

Right now, I have fluorescent tube fixtures in both my birdrooms but I am going to change them to regular screw-on bulb fixtures because I can no longer find the Philips tubes with the good specs. I started using Dr. Mercola's light bulbs but, for some reason, they have now reduced the CRI (it used to be 94 but it's only 93 now while still retaining the higher Ktemp at 5500). The specifications you are looking for are a CRI of 94 or more (the higher the better) and a Ktemp between 5000 and 5500 (but I like 5000 better than 5500).

These are the bulbs I am planning on using: http://sunshinesciences.com/product/spi ... ulb-4-pack

[seagoatdeb]

The theory that birds descended from dinosaurs is controversial and not an establish fact. Here is an article from the Smithsonian that sums up the arguments for and against that theory. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-n ... 06/?no-ist

[Wolf]

I don't know what others will see when they read this article, but to me, while it does make the point that there were feathered dinosaurs that were not birds, it also makes it very clear that there were also dinosaurs that were probably birds. and that birds were very likely to have descended from dinosaurs. In other words birds descended from dinosaurs, but not from all dinosaurs. But then no one has ever claimed that all dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds.

[Pajarita]

The way I read it, the article talks about the initial skepticism of scientist UNTIL the discovery of this particular place in China where they found all these wonderful specimens of dino-birds (some even had still remnants of feathers!) which, pretty much, dissolved all doubts and goes on to confirm that birds did descend from dinosaurs.
Quote
The fossils finally have confirmed, to all but a few skeptics, that birds descended from dinosaurs and are the living representatives of a dinosaur lineage called the Maniraptorans.
Unquote

[seagoatdeb]

Yeah Its really not an either or thing, its only that its a controversial subject. Its another way the media has run with a story and it becomes 'fact" before enough info is in. I tell Gaugan she is a dinosaur anyway. Heres another article which has come from info from scientests against. I was only trying to find a good for and against, but it takes a lot of research to find out which way each prominent scientest goes. Its really not something to argue about because It cant be proved conclusively either way yet.

I dont think they have humans evolution right yet either. We dont have a clear link between homo Erectus and Homo sapien, and homo sapien Neanderthalus is a sub species that could interbreed with us. Those arguments are facinating to but I wont diverge. DNA has been a great leap forward.

I choose to believe birds predate dinosaurs and did not share DNA with dinosaurs, and instead they evolved along seperate lines, but I dont cling to that view and time will tell as more is found out. If they predate and have seperate lines than all the feather finds may be realated to ancient birds and are not dinosaurs or maybe we will have different categories for dinosaurs as more is found out. I am not going to find anymore links after this one, too busy these days, but for anyone who is interested it is a very interesting topic.

I almost majored in archeology, I find it absolutely facinating.

http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences ... esearchers