#parrot dinosaur

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

This is Ellie yawning next to a Jurassic Park poster!

If you see this picture, you are guaranteed to have something nice happen to you tomorrow!

Ellie says hello and that she loves you! I know because I asked!

[aberrantologist]

Lucky experienced his first snow day today! It was very fun seeing her look out the window. (Way too cold for them to actually go outside!)

[harpagornis]

Old Messelastur gratulator commission. By Christopher Rigobello.

[greencheekconure27]

Hot take

[alphynix]

Spectember/Spectober 2023 #09: Things With Wings

(Apologies for the abrupt absence – I'm okay, just having everything break down at once. This is fine.)

So— back to the speculative evolution request list!

@thebigdeepcheatsy requested a "cactus-dwelling/germinating evolution of introduced rosy-faced lovebirds":

While Agapornis cheatsyi is still quite physically similar to its introduced ancestors, this lovebird has developed a close symbiotic relationship with the cactus Carnegiea ornipolis, a descendant of the modern saguaro.

Naturally fasciated, this cactus grows a splaying fan-like crown which the lovebirds excavate their shallow nest burrows into. Feeding on the cactus' fruit in early summer, the lovebirds then disperse the seeds via their droppings – a process that significantly improves propagation chances, both due to the birds commonly foraging and defecating around suitable nurse plants and the passage through their gut speeding up germination.

———

Someone calling themself "LB" asked for some "flying afrotherians":

Elbeitandraka venenifer is a descendant of tree-climbing Malagasy tenrecs that developed gliding membranes – and its lineage is now just about achieving true powered flight.

About 25cm long (~10"), its proportionally short broad wings require it to fly very fast to generate enough lift for its weight. It mostly only actively flies when traveling between roosts and feeding sites (or when escaping from threats), alternating between gliding to save energy and flapping to recover altitude.

It's an opportunistic omnivore, crawling around in the tree canopy foraging for vegetation, fruits, fungi, invertebrates, and the occasional smaller vertebrate, using its flexible sengi-like nose to probe around in crevices.

Much like modern common tenrecs it's capable of hibernating for months at a time through periods of scarce food availability. It also accumulates alkaloid toxins in its body from its arthropod prey, advertising its unpalatability to predators with bold contrasting warning coloration on its wing membranes.

———

And here's a combination of a couple of anonymous requests for both "flying heterodontosaurs" and "dragons with hind leg wings, a la sharovipteryx":

Inversodraco rapax is a highly specialized Jurassic descendant of heterodontosaurids that took to climbing and gliding, developing delta-wing-like membranes on their hindlimbs convergently similar to those of the earlier sharovipterygids.

Around 75cm long (~2'6"), it has unusually flexible hip joints for a dinosaur, able to splay its legs out to the sides to deploy wings supported by an elongated outer toe on each foot. Its arms form small forewings for stability, and its long tail ends in a vane of stiffened feathers that aid in steering.

Unlike its herbivorous-to-omnivorous ancestors it's primarily a carnivore, swooping down onto small prey and grabbing it with its talon-like forelimbs.

[birdhism]

[erockrogers]

Pegomastax was an odd, little dinosaur that lived in South Africa around 200 million years ago. It had a parrot-like beak equipped with sharp teeth, including a distinctive pair of fangs. Its specialized teeth and jaw were likely used for chewing tough vegetation. Strong hind legs suggest it was an agile runner, capable of quick bursts of speed. Its body was covered in bristle-like structures, resembling the quills of a porcupine, adding to its peculiar appearance.

[cypressure]

couple of birds for last night's paleostream (Sao Miguel Scops Owl, Kosmoceratops)

[olessan]

huge WUEWUEWUE bird my beloved

(x)

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Not enough people understand the true nature of Jurassic Park methinks. Can it be enjoyed as a dinosaur horror? Absolutely. But I personally think it's much more enjoyable as a biological sci-fi. These aren't dinosaurs, they are biological monsters made in the shape of dinosaurs. They cut corners, they used frog DNA to fill in what they didn't have. John Hammond brought these experts along to see if their reactions would be "Oh my god that's a dinosaur" and then moved along when it was exactly that. But idk, that's just me.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

I reject the false dichotomy between Pigeon Lovers and Parrot Lovers

Both are amazing, both are wonderful, both are perfect

Reblog if you too love BOTH pigeons AND parrots!

[spiiderdog]

Realised I haven’t posted in yonks so uh

Have this raptor coloured like a galah

[birbiebabies]

"Dinosaur" desk pal asmr.

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

Im feeling generous, so here’s

All of this weeks homeworm art

Yellow tailed melanids

Melanornis xanthocaudis

Southern megabird

Titanornis gigantis

Struthiopsittacidae indet.

Passeripsittacidae indet.

Dome headed flower eater

Pachycephalogekko ferrucephalis

Ocean grydle

Xenopelagis ichthyomorphis

Striped Redneck

Erythrocephalis migratorius

Spotted sea dragon

Pelagodraco septentris

Western Pilotpole

Ductogirinus naucrates

Black tailed albarrots

Ardeapsittacis diomedus

Tiger sharkpole

Squalogyrinus tigrinus

Eastern Pilotpole

Ductogyrinus striatus

Digging finpole

Fossopterygius paternis

[alphynix]

Strange Symmetries #23: Convergent Earvolution

Although it's not visible externally, owls have one of the most striking modern examples of asymmetry. The ears of many species are uneven, with the right ear opening positioned higher up than the left, giving them the ability to pinpoint the sounds of their prey much more accurately.

But surprisingly this isn't a unique anatomical trait that only ever evolved once in their common ancestor.

Instead, multiple different lineages of owls have actually convergently evolved wonky ears somewhere between four and seven separate times.

The boreal owl (Aegolius funereus), also known as Tengmalm's owl, is a small 25cm long (~10") true owl found across much of the northern parts of both Eurasia and North America. While most other owls' asymmetrical ear openings are formed just by soft tissue, the boreal owl's lopsided ears are actually visible in the bones of its skull.

But despite how many times owls have convergently evolved asymmetrical ears, and how successful this adaptation has been for them, for a long time it seemed to be something that no other animals have ever mimicked.

In the early 2000s asymmetric ears were reported in the skulls of some troodontid dinosaurs, which seem to have been nocturnal hearing-based hunters similar to owls, but proper details on this feature still haven't been formally published.

Then, just a couple of weeks ago, another example was finally announced.

The night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) is a small ground-dwelling parrot found in Australia, close to the same size as the boreal owl at around 22cm long (~9"). Critically endangered and very elusive, it's rarely seen and little is known about it – and it was presumed extinct for much of the 20th century, until more recent sightings of living individuals confirmed that the species is still hanging on.

Recent studies of preserved museum specimens have revealed that it seems to have poor night vision but excellent hearing, and that its right ear opening is noticeably asymmetrical, bulging out sideways from its skull. Much like owls the night parrot relies on acute directional hearing to navigate in darkness, but since its diet consists mainly of seeds it's probably not using this ability to locate food sources. Instead it may be listening out to keep track of the precise locations of other parrots, and for the approach of predators – so its sharp sense of hearing may be the reason this unique bird has so far just barely managed to survive the presence of invasive cats and foxes.

———

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[ppaleoartistgallery]

Paleostream 23/03/2024

WHOOPS GUESS WHO FORGOT TO POST YESTERDAY'S #Paleostream SKETCHES!!!

yesterday we drew Ectopistes migratorius (Passenger Pigeon), Eclectus infectus (Oceanic Eclectus), Kosmoceratops, and Otus frutuosoi (São Miguel scops owl)