Diario del proyecto Flying Creatures

Species: Genus Columba
Common Adaptation:
The main common adaptation that occurs between all of our observation is the fact that all the creatures we have found so far are all of the species are able to fly with wings. This may be due to the fact that as time went on, the only way these species were able to survive were to fly away from their prey or use their wings to fly and survive by eating what they can find as they used their wings to soar around.

Unique Adaptation:
A unique adaptation that happened in the Old World Pigeons, also known as the Genus Columba, is the fact the trait where their shoulders are a lot larger compared to the other birds that are shown in our project. The Genus Columba also has a trait where their head bobbles up and down. Both of these traits are most likely due to the way they fly as they are able to "hover" better than most birds due to their wings adjustments to counter the Earth's gravitational force as they are flying through the air.

Phylogenic Tree Placement:
The city pigeon's descendants have been very hard to trace down ever since it's the first appearance in history. The only leading factor we know is that city pigeons came from the rock pigeon. The range has been narrowed to somewhere around the convergence of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It was there that the many uses of pigeons appear to have become evident early on leading to the domestication of the rock pigeon by humans between 5000 and 10,000 years ago. Other similar traits include that pigeons seem to have a similar connection to doves as they belong in the same subgroup, Columba.

Phylogeny placement - Kea, Nestor notabilis
Commonly named the alpine parrot, it is no great surprise that the Kea owes its descendance to the Parrot family in the phylogenetic tree, where it separated from other familiar parrots, such as the parakeets and
cockatoo, about 55.6 million years ago. A greater surprise was to note its common ancestor to the royal python, Nile crocodile and kemp turtles, about 300 million years ago, descending from the Sauropsida family.

Common adaptation - Flying Creatures
The flying creatures in our group project had to adapt the properties of their flight depending on their very different local environments; to feed and protect themselves from predators.

Unique adaptation - Red-breasted Dotterel
It was extremely hard to observe the Red-breasted Dotterel, as it has developed a unique camouflage for its typical environment. The female dotterels lay their nests on sandy beaches and, therefore, over millions of years, adapted their plumage to the sandy colours of the beach, as a way to protect themselves and young ones.

Mourning Doves on the Tree of Life
The most recent common ancestor of the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) and its closest relative the Socorro dove (Zenaida graysoni) lived 681.8 thousand years ago, with the first ancestor of the genus Zenaida emerging ~15 million years ago. Zenaida doves are a part of the Columbiformes order, which comprises of 306 species of doves and pigeons, all of which are included in the Aves class.

Adaptation - Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Turkey vultures have an extremely large olfactory bulb (area of the brain responsible for processing smell), which allows them to have a far keener sense of smell than most birds. This allows them to uniquely hunt prey through smell, putting them at an advantage against other birds of prey.

Common Adaptions In This Project
All the organisms in this project have evolved to have a pair of wings that allow them to take flight. However, butterfly and bird wings developed independently (as opposed to originating from a common ancestor) - this can be seen in crucial differences such as the lack of bones in insect wings.