Now the next step: evolution. The Grants found that the offspring of the birds that survived the 1977 drought tended to be larger, with bigger beaks. So the adaptation to a changed environment led ...

Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, who is not connected with the research, described the study as a game-changer in how we understand the evolution of the bird beak and brain.

with their toothed beaks and clawed fingers. Our knowledge of this period of bird evolution is growing rapidly. Since 1990, more than three times as many bird fossils dating from the Cretaceous ...

Our two pieces of recent research identified that, in response to warming, more than 100 species of Australian birds have developed smaller bodies and bigger beaks over time. When we talk about ...

The toothless beak, large eye sockets ... led the researchers to compare it to a “Rosetta Stone” of bird evolution. “Just ...

The age of dinosaurs began over 230 million years ago, ushering in an era of unparalleled diversity and dominance. While the ...

Over time, natural selection favored finches with sharper, longer beaks. These birds were better equipped to quickly and easily pierce the skin of their booby bird neighbors. Vampire finches still ...

“What we found was there was the slow, steady kind of gradual evolution,” says Steve. Many of the features that we think of when we think of birds – feathers, wings, wishbones, and beaks ...

Irrespective of directionality, beak saturation also related to beta diversity, indicating that birds with more similar beak coloration profiles had more similar microbiome community structures.

Australian birds are changing shape due to rising temperatures. Over 100 species show smaller bodies and larger beaks, aiding heat dissipation. Long-term warming increases beak size, but short ...