Suspect this one might be a 1 April special? The link to the article in The Auk is dead.
I think it's legit, though I'm not so sure I agree with the conclusions. As you hint Andy, there's nothing amusing or wacky to suggest it's a 1st April joke!
Same. I googled one of the scientists named, and he is legit, but the entire premise of shorter wing length being a response to global warming has little face validity.
Suspect this one might be a 1 April special? The link to the article in The Auk is dead.
Nothing listed here for the latest issue:Both scientists have published a fair bit of work. Does anybody have the title of the paper or the doi...? I'd like to read their rationale in full before commenting on the findings.
By the way, Breitbart is in full apocalyptic rage about this paper, commenters calling for the scientists to be barred from any further work for daring to assert that climate change is real. Others are calling for The Auk to be shut down... ...and those are but two of the less extreme commnets...:-C:-C:-C
MJB
Link still dead; I guess available later today (USA time a few hours behind UK) or tomorrow?"Climate change and maladaptive wing shortening in a long-distance migratory bird" will be available April 1, 2020, at https://academic.oup.com/auk/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/auk/ukaa012.
Nothing listed here for the latest issue:
https://academic.oup.com/auk/issue/137/1
Suspect it may be a paper in prep.? There's also a bit about it in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...due-to-shorter-wings-caused-by-climate-crisis
Of course breitbart etc will be livid because of evolution, as well as climate change . . . a double whammy for them :-O
Because the link given didn't link to anything :t:So what made you think it was an April fool Nutty, never even occured to me or most others?
Because the link given didn't link to anything :t:
Have to admit, I'm still a mite dubious, until I see hard evidence the paper actually exists ;)
Because the link given didn't link to anything :t:
Have to admit, I'm still a mite dubious, until I see hard evidence the paper actually exists
:clap::clap:It is quite plain: the Nightingale is evolving into a flightless bird unique to Britain.
Extrapolating the current trend, within 500 years or so, Nightingales in Britain will become as flightless as kiwis. This completely follows the current scientific reasoning. We all read in countless climate papers, that the short-term trends can be simply extrapolated over time with no regard to time brackets. There are examples of flightless songbirds on islands. It is also documented, that flightlessness in island birds can evolve very fast (the White-throated Rail on Aldabra became flightless in few millenia). Since flightless bird cannot cross the English Channel, the gene flow with mainland will be broken, and Britain will get a new endemic species, as valid as the Scottish Crossbill.
:king:
333It is quite plain: the Nightingale is evolving into a flightless bird unique to Britain.
Extrapolating the current trend, within 500 years or so, Nightingales in Britain will become as flightless as kiwis. This completely follows the current scientific reasoning. We all read in countless climate papers, that the short-term trends can be simply extrapolated over time with no regard to time brackets. There are examples of flightless songbirds on islands. It is also documented, that flightlessness in island birds can evolve very fast (the White-throated Rail on Aldabra became flightless in few millenia). Since flightless bird cannot cross the English Channel, the gene flow with mainland will be broken, and Britain will get a new endemic species, as valid as the Scottish Crossbill.
:king:
It is quite plain: the Nightingale is evolving into a flightless bird unique to Britain.
the gene flow with mainland will be broken, and Britain will get a new endemic species, as valid as the Scottish Crossbill.
:king:
Nope, the new name is Whingeing Crossbill oYou mean Short-winged Crossbill I think.