With their short wings relative to body size, hummingbirds are built for hovering. Their relatives, swifts, have super-long wings, built for gliding and high-speed flight. Their common ancestor, Eocypselus rowei, had wings sized between the two and they were built for… well, it’s hard to say.

“[Based on its wing shape] it probably wasn’t a hoverer like a hummingbird, and it probably wasn’t as efficient at fast flight as a swift,” says Daniel Ksepka of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

Ksepka and his colleagues discovered a fossil of E. rowei in southwestern Wyoming at a fossil site known as the Green River Formation. The small bird—only twelve centimeters from head to tail—lived about 50 million years ago. Feathers account for more than half of the bird’s total wing length.

The researchers compared the specimen to extinct and modern day species. Their analyses suggest that the bird was an evolutionary precursor to the group that includes today’s swifts and hummingbirds. “This fossil bird represents the closest we’ve gotten to the point where swifts and hummingbirds went their separate ways,” says Ksepka.

Their study was published last week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The shape of the E. rowei’s wings, coupled with its tiny size, suggest that the ancestors of today’s swifts and hummingbirds got small before each group’s unique flight behavior came to be. “Hummingbirds came from small-bodied ancestors, but the ability to hover didn’t come to be until later,” Ksepka explains.

Closer study of the feathers under a scanning electron microscope revealed that carbon residues in the fossils—once thought to be traces of bacteria that fed on feathers—are fossilized melanosomes, tiny cell structures containing melanin pigments that give birds and other animals their color. The findings suggest that the ancient bird was probably black and may have had a glossy or iridescent sheen, like swifts living today. Based on its beak shape it probably ate insects, the researchers say.

Hummingbirds and swifts are two of many animals built for speed. Later this week, the Academy will open a new exhibit called Built for Speed, that will feature fast fishes and marine mammals. Learn more here.

Image: Mdf/Wikipedia

Oops!

Last winter we attended the AAAS Meeting in Vancouver, BC and listened to the University of Texas’ Charles Groat downplay the effects of fracking. We posted a bit of that news in an article about increased fracking regulations in April.

This week, Science Insider reports that Groat neglected to mention that he serves on the board of (and receives quite a bit of funding from) an oil and gas company that conducts fracking. Sounds like a bit of a conflict of interest, doesn’t it?

Really Old Polar Bears

In April we also ran a story about polar bear evolution. Researchers, studying nuclear DNA, put polar bears’ origin to 600,000 years ago.

But a new study, published earlier this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that polar bears evolved into a distinct species as many as 4-5 million years ago and did not recently descend from brown bears, despite shared genetic material.

The authors conclude that brown bears and polar bears interbred intermittently over the years. The New York Times compares this to humans in a funny, relatable way:

The progress of species formation, at least in this case, is a bit like a long, ambivalent divorce in which the two parties separate but occasionally fall back into bed even after the official decree.

Drought

Last week, we wrote about the devastating drought engulfing our country. This week Brandon Keim, writing in Wired, describes how this tragedy could reach beyond our borders and create global unrest.

Reporting on a recent study by the New England Complex Systems Institute, Keim says that commodity speculation (that food prices will rise due to the drought) may drive conflict in developing countries. The study reports that recent history demonstrates this trend:

During the last six years, high and fluctuating food prices have lead to widespread hunger and social unrest.

An article in Nature also explores this global impact.

Rain, rain…

Finally, earlier this summer, before drought was a harsh reality, we described mosquitoes amazing ability to fly through the rain. Now, a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, demonstrates that hummingbirds are equally as adept in heavy downpours.

According to the abstract, UC Berkeley’s Victor Manuel Ortega-Jimenez and Robert Dudley found that:

…birds hovering in heavy rain adopted more horizontal body and tail positions, and also increased wingbeat frequency substantially, while reducing stroke amplitude when compared with control conditions.

These dynamics can be applied to robots, say the authors. No surprise, given both scientists are part of Berkeley’s Integrative Biology department—where many bio-inspired robotic ideas come from.

Image: User:Mdf/Wikipedia

Until last week, I had no idea what a murmuration was. Did you? Then this amazing video went viral. The science behind starlings flying in unison is stunning and more about physics than biology, says Wired.

Each starling in a flock is connected to every other. When a flock turns in unison, it’s a phase transition.

How does a hummingbird stay dry in the rain? Ask your dog. UC Berkeley researchers, using high-speed video, found that hummingbirds shake off water like dogs do, only in mid-flight, “reaching a G-Force of 34,” according to NPR. Dang!

How can two birds sing a duet so synchronous that it sounds like only one bird singing? Researchers studied Andean wrens’ neurons to understand this phenomenon. They discovered that a pair of male and female wrens memorizes the entire song, coming in when only needed. The female appears to take the lead, so perhaps “the duets are a way for a female to challenge and test a male,” ponders ScienceNOW. You can take a listen here.

Recent studies have shown that many animals are getting smaller as the climate warms. But research conducted by our friends at SF State and PRBO finds the opposite is true with Californian birds. Analyzing data from thousands of local birds caught and released each year over the past 40 years, the scientists discovered that the birds’ wings have grown longer and the birds are increasing in mass.

Extinct birds were the subjects of two separate multimedia articles last week. Cornell University, via the New York Times, has video (the only known video or image) of the imperial woodpecker, extinct since the mid-20^th century. These were beautiful birds, done in by logging in Mexico’s Sierra Madre. Listen to the audio, too. New Scientist has a gallery of “bird ghosts,” that includes drawings by Ralph Steadman and haunting music, too.

Want more? How about rewarding designers and builders for creating bird-friendly buildings? Or robins pleading guilty in spreading the West Nile virus?

Finally, have you read the ongoing “Scientist at Work” blog by the Academy’s own Jack Dumbacher in the New York Times over the past two months? Jack is researching birds in the islands of Papua New Guinea. We’ll feature a video of his work next month, so stay tuned!

Image: User:Mdf/Wikipedia