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Aves Project
1. Aves
By: Kelsey Y
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What is Aves? 2009/04/12/25950
Most people know about penguins and ostriches. Did you know that these birds are put into the
classification Aves? These birds come in variety of sizes and colors. From two inches to ten feet, from black to
white, there is many different kinds.
Transport
Internal
External
A bird has a lack of sweat; therefore, they don’t as
When we think of birds, we think of flying.
much water as other animals. Birds receive their
However, not all birds can fly. The flightless birds
water by the foods they eat. They also swallow their
either depend on walking or swimming to get
food whole. So, they have a gizzard. A gizzard is a
around. Take the penguin for example, it’s mostly
tough muscle that grinds up a bird’s food so that it
used form for transportation is swimming.
can be digested. After the food passes through the
gizzard it goes into the intestines. The intestines
Nutrition
absorb the nutrients from the food. Then the digested
food is passed to the rectum where it is excreted. The A bird’s diet consists of seeds, fruit, nectar, plants,
liquid consumption of the bird is passed to the carcasses, and small animals. For breeding, they
kidneys, they filter out the waste and are expelled at need calcium and phosphorus for strong shell growth
a later point. The ureter is attached to the kidneys for the eggs. They also need the right balance of
where the liquid waste is passed out of the body. A amino acids, vitamins, and carbohydrates to remain a
bird’s heart is similar to a humans. It has four high fertility rate.
chambers and it pumps oxygen-rich blood
throughout the bird’s body. However, their hearts
beat faster than a human’s because they need the
energy. For some birds, their resting heart rate is
about 500 beats per minute.
By flickr user: avianlove.com
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2. Reproduction Adaptation homeostasis is the liver. The liver
All birds reproduce sexually. The takes the toxins out of the body
male birds do not have external Many species of flightless birds and keeps it at peace.
sex organs, but they get larger as had to adapt. At one time, all birds
breeding season comes closer. The could fly. However, conditions General Structure
females ovaries also get larger changed, like their enemies, and
they no longer needed to fly. So, The flightless birds have a
during breeding season; however,
for protection they grew long different structure compared to
only the left one is functional. The
toenails and some grew flippers flying birds. Swimming birds have
male sperm will stay inside the
for a quick escape. Another a wide sternum and walking birds
cloaca until the egg reaches it. The
adaptation is that all birds use to have a long sternum. Flightless
fertilized egg will stay inside the
have teeth, but their diets changed birds don’t have a strong pectoral
cloaca for about one week, then it
and they didn’t need teeth to muscle for they do not need this to
will be dropped into a nest. The
digest their food because they fly. They also have more feathers
female will keep the egg warm
formed a gizzard. Their beaks also that are symmetrical and they do
until it hatches.
changed by what food they eat and not have a keel. A keel is located
how they get it. on the breastbone of the bird and
provides a place for muscle to
Response to Stimuli Respiration attach. The muscles that attach to
A bird nervous system has a spinal it are used for flying, but since
column, neurons, and a brain. Like most animals, birds have these kind of birds don’t fly, they
They have a autonomic nervous lungs, alveoli, and air sacs to don’t need it. Flightless birds have
system that controls the breath. Birds have six to nine air smaller wing bones or hardly any
fundamentals of living, like sacs, which is more than most wings at all. Most non-flying birds
heartbeat, breathing, and animals. They have a muscle in are larger altogether compared to
digestion. Their sympathetic their chest that pushes outward flying ones. These birds also do
system controls the amount of and puts a negative pressure on the not have hallow bones like the
adrenaline pumped through their air sacs and that causes air to go flying birds for they don’t need
bodies. The parasympathetic into the respiratory system. Then this aerodynamical ability for they
system controls the amount of the muscle pushes the air out. The can’t fly.
adrenaline released into the body lungs for the bird do not move so
to help the bird in a dangerous they exchange oxygen and carbon Place in Food Chain
situation, known as the “fight or dioxide through the alveoli.
All birds are known as secondary
flight” reflex.
Regulation consumers. So they eat primary
consumers. birds are also known
Birds are known as endothermic, as omnivores, which means they
which means they keep their body eat both plants and meat.
temperature in control to maintain
homeostasis. They get this heat by
their metabolism. Birds have a
high metabolic rate so that they
can keep their body temperature
above their surroundings. Another
form that they use to keep
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locomotion-anima
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food_web.jpg
3. Background The “Oddball” arrival of humans. An endangered
There are two flightless birds that bird would be the Takahe bird. It
Scientists believe that birds came are considered as oddballs. One was thought to be extinct until
from dinosaurs. More specifically bird would the famous species, the some scientists discovered them
they came from the theropod penguin. They are different from along a lake. Ostriches and
dinosaurs. There latest ancestor the rest because the male sits on penguins are also known to be
would be the crocodile. Many the egg and keeps it warm while endangered.
species started to form during the the female hunts for food. They
Cretaceous period. Scientists also don’t use nests to hold the By flickr user: www.insidesocal.com/
discovered a fossilized tomhoffarth/dodo-bird-pla
their eggs. The other bird would
Archaeopteryx, it had a long tail, the kiwi. It hardly has wings and
teeth, feathers, and claws. the feathers are fur-like. It is one
Although this dinosaur wasn’t of the smallest flightless birds and
completely bird-like it gave it’s eggs are large compared to the
evidence of the ancestry of birds. size of the bird.
by flickr user: notesfromatransitional..
Their Importance
Birds are important to us because
they can be used as food by
hunting and trapping. Some birds
Organisms found in By flickr user:
Group sleepynz.files.wordpress.com/.../kiwi-large.jpg can be kept as pets Their
excretions are collected and used
There are 40 species of flightless Type of Symmetry
as fertilizer. Also they are used in
birds in existence today. Some All birds have a bilateral
arts, such as sculpture, paintings,
organisms found in the flightless symmetry. This type of symmetry
and poetry/songs.
Aves classification are the kiwi means that both sides are in
ostrich, emu, and the famous proportion to each other. Bilateral
penguins. There are 14 categories symmetry is common in most
that these birds are placed into. mammals.
They are Ratites,
Podicipediformes, Extinct of Endangered
Pelicaniformes,
Sphenisciformes, Coraciiformes, There are extinct and endangered
Anseriformes, Ciconiiformes, flightless birds. A famous extinct
Gruiformes, Charadriiformes, bird was the dodo. Phorusrhacids
Psittaciformes, Columbiformes, are also on the extinct list. They
Caprimulgiformes, were prehistoric flightless birds
Passeriformes, Galliformes. that look similar to emus and By flickr user:paleocraft.com
ostriches. Both of these birds were
believed to become extinct at the
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