We traded passenger pigeons for THAT?
Category: Organisms
Posted on: August 2, 2006 9:48 AM, by PZ Myers
Watch the 'pretty' birdies land on a tree.
Lippard has also pulled out a viewer comment that you will find hard to believe.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Search this blog
Profile
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence.
Random Quote
(Complete listing)The egg of prayer never yet became a chicken.
[Lemuel K. Washburn, Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays]
Recent Posts
- Not my cup of tea
- Zombies defend Christmas!
- Nice shirt
- Faith hurts
- There probably isn't
- Enduring damage
- Casey Luskin writes a revealing letter
- Come on down
- The Wall Street Journal editorial pages are a very silly place
- Friday Cephalopod: Out of the shadows it comes
A Taste of Pharyngula
(Complete listing)Modules and the promise of the evo-devo research program
Ten questions to ask your biology teacher
Recent Comments
- scelesor on There probably isn't
- amk on Not my cup of tea
- Mike on Casey Luskin writes a revealing letter
- mayhempix on Faith hurts
- Nick Gotts on Faith hurts
- Nick Gotts on Zombies defend Christmas!
- Kaji on The Wall Street Journal editorial pages are a very silly place
- maditude on Not my cup of tea
- MartinM on Not my cup of tea
- amk on Not my cup of tea
Archives
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
Blogroll
(Complete listing)Other Information
Subscribe via Email
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
« Planet smasher | Main | Taking my name in vain »
TrackBacks
(TrackBack URL for this entry: )
Comments
Are you kidding me? I won't spoil the viewer comment surprise, but damn. That person needs to watch some Hitchcock, stat.
Posted by: Carlie | August 2, 2006 10:06 AM
God hates that tree!
Posted by: Matt McIrvin![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
|
August 2, 2006 10:06 AM
"it is a sign in the form of a angel.".....hmm, i didn't notice any stigmata on the birds.
Posted by: scout | August 2, 2006 10:27 AM
The Red Cedar has taken on the shape of a chicken under the weight of the starlings. That must be significant- if only to Colonel Sanders.
Posted by: Joe Martin | August 2, 2006 10:30 AM
I will not stand for the heresy of someone who sees a chicken where there is clearly a squirrel.
Posted by: Harry | August 2, 2006 10:34 AM
Methinks it is like a weasel.
Posted by: quork | August 2, 2006 10:44 AM
It is backed like a weasel.
Posted by: quork | August 2, 2006 10:57 AM
Maybe we can breed some pigeons to look like Passenger Pigeons?
Posted by: Stanton | August 2, 2006 11:00 AM
Very apropos, quork.
What I find most stunning about this video is the fact that the videographer didn't get bird crap on the lens.
Martin
Posted by: Martin Christensen | August 2, 2006 11:04 AM
What I always want to know is: a sign of WHAT?
"You will destroy a great kingdom..."
Posted by: The Ridger | August 2, 2006 11:08 AM
Posted by: quork | August 2, 2006 11:27 AM
That viewer's comment is what happens when all you know about animals is Hollywood and the Bible. Steven Pinker rants about Hollywood missing all the teachable moments for evolution in movies, even March of the Penguins and Winged Migration -- ranting in Forbes for a different readership than usual. (Free registration required.)
Posted by: thwaite | August 2, 2006 11:30 AM
Clearly, it took the birds several tries to get the tree into the shape they were trying for: a T-rex. Once they managed it, they flew away.
Posted by: Mnemosyne | August 2, 2006 11:33 AM
Anyone know of a way to save this file to disk? OSX here.....
Posted by: skblllzzzz | August 2, 2006 11:34 AM
I'm thinking the comment is just a joke, ala Noel Hurley.
Posted by: Beth | August 2, 2006 12:04 PM
I have to say, that video looks staged to me. It looks like the trees are being pulled down with rope or something, then released to snap them back up.
Posted by: redbeardjim | August 2, 2006 12:42 PM
It's even worse that we traded Carolina parakeets for that. Ick.
Posted by: George Cauldron![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
|
August 2, 2006 1:00 PM
Erm ... are there not quite a few stuffed Pasenger Pigeons in museums?
How difficult would it be to re-create them, using extracted DNA?
Seriously - not now, maybe, but I would have thought within 10 years?
Posted by: G. Tingey | August 3, 2006 5:10 AM
It slike the fenomenom called sort sol, or "Black Sun" here in Denmark.
Hundreds of thousands of starlings rest in the marshes in the south of Jutland/North of Germany, and just before sundown they start gruping together until they are just one flock.
Ana amazing sight
http://www.vnn.dk/Klum-vis-one.asp?klumID=16&lan=UK
Posted by: Søren Kongstad | August 3, 2006 6:05 AM
What I find most stunning about this video is the fact that the videographer didn't get bird crap on the lens.
I'm pretty sure he was in a car, hence the request to turn on the flashers. You can hear a woman and a small child on the audio, too, presumably in the car with him. Dang, that's a springy tree.
Carolina parakeet, passenger pigeon, Eskimo curlew, heath hen, great auk... You want real hurt, look at a birdlist for Hawai'i. And of all the starlings in all the places in the world, we got that one. Yeesh.
Posted by: Ron Sullivan | August 3, 2006 8:02 PM
Starlings and house sparrows were brought over to the new world in the late 1800's. Some dopey Shakespeare lover thought it would be too cool to have all the birds in the Bard's writings in the New World.
The first batch of house sparrows croaked so he brought over more and we all know what happened then. Coupled with loss of habitat, the house sparrow population nearly caused the extinction of the eastern bluebird. The starlings target woodpeckers and other birds like pruple martins. They are both invasive species just like those nasty chinese fish that decimate native fish populations.
Posted by: G in INdiana | August 6, 2006 9:08 AM