The ancestors of the flying little feathered friends eating sunflower seeds from your garden a strong sniffer inherited from their old flightless dinosaurs kin.
Birds, the today's descendants of the dinosaurs, were originally thought much of their sense of smell in the evolutionary race who develop brain for flight capacity to have lost. But scientists at the University of Calgary, the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, found that the smell improved old birds actually first sense.
"Previously it was believed, that birds were so busy developing vision, balance and coordination for flight, that way back, scaled was their sense of smell", said Darla Zelenitsky, Assistant Professor of paleontology at the University of Calgary and main author of the study published in proceedings of the Royal Society b
"Surprisingly, our research shows that sense of smell is actually improved during the dinosaur-bird evolution, such as vision and balance," said Zelinsky in an Ohio University Press release.
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To estimate how much the old birds feeling was the smell compared to dinosaurs and modern birds, the researchers examined the skull of 157 dinosaur and bird, ancient and modern. She saw in the size of the room filled of the olfactory bulb in the skull. The bigger the space, the better sense of smell.
"Of course the actual brain tissue long is gone from the fossil skull", said co-author Lawrence Witmer, Professor of paleontology at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, "but we can CT scanning to visualize the cavity that once the brain and bulbs and other parts then create 3D computer renderings of the olfactory brain."
The researchers found that old bird dinosaurs in the ways surpassed even their cousins, attracted a meal or a partner, or the scent of evil lurking predators to catch.
"The oldest known bird archaeopteryx, feel the smell of small meat eating dinosaurs inherited 150 million years ago", says co-author Fran?ois Therrien, curator of the dinosaur paleo-ecology in the Royal Tyrrell Museum. "Later the ancestor developed around 95 million years ago, which all modern birds or better olfactory functions."
The smell were Dinos and birds similarities and differences in their need for a sense. The scientists found that the smell had similar meaning archaeopteryx and pigeons.
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"Turkey vultures and albatross birds known for their sense of smell, to look after food, or navigate over large areas use," says Zelenitsky. "Our discovery that small Velociraptor-like dinosaurs, suggests how the smell had Bambiraptor, a feeling such as Turkey vultures and albatrosses, developed that smell chased may have played an important role during these dinosaurs for food."
But many birds, people on a daily basis, such as crows and pet parrots, see not particularly sensitive sniffer. Zelenitsky believes that it can be no coincidence that she also some the most intelligent birds. Perhaps smarter birds need less powerful nose, she said.
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There were large differences in Dino noses, as well as. Prey had predators, such as T-Rex, large olfactory olfactory most likely in tracking, finding carrion and others used as search say that territory, Therrien in distant mates and security. On the other hand, Triceratops, little room in the head Horn had covered for smell equipment.
Figure 1: Evolution in birds of the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain, where odor information is passed from a dinosaur (Bambiraptor) by early risers (Lithornis, Presbyornis) on a modern bird (pigeon). (Credit: WitmerLab at Ohio University).
Figure 2: diagram of olfactory bulb size and height of each bird (black icons) and dinosaurs (green icons)-types. Similarities in the olfactory bulb and body size between species, such as the dinosaur Bambiraptor, Turkey Vulture and the albatross, suggest a similar sense of smell. Courtesy of Darla Zelenitsky.
Figure 3: colors the Bambiraptor dinosaurs in a Turkey Vulture. Bambiraptor had the similar to a great sniffer of a Turkey Vulture. Courtesy of Julius Csotonyi.
Figure 4: T-Rex skeleton (Wikimedia Commons).
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