Ornithere: Difference between revisions
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{{Construction}}
{{group|generation=162|progenitor=Brighteyes|image=Brighteyes.png|taxon=Ornitheria}}{{RandomExtant|Ornitheria|
==Naming==
"Ornithere" (and the taxon name ''Ornitheria'') means bird-beast and stems from the bird-like appearance of the group. It is common for the names of sauceback taxa to end in ''-therium''.
The name "jewel-eyed sauceback" stems from one of their unique features--unlike most saucebacks which are blind, ornitheres have mirror-based eyes derived from their nostrils--called "eyestrils"--which have a shiny, jewel-like appearance.
==Anatomy==
Their namesake are their eyestrils. Derived from the scent pits found in all beastworms, they are used for both sight and smell. The pupil is open to allow air in, and as this constraint prevented them from evolving lenses, they instead focus light using mirrors at the back of the eye. In effect, the entire eye is a highly efficient tapetum lucidum which reflects and focuses light into a photoreceptive patch on the inside next to the pupil hole. This causes them to appear to have white pupils, and if you were to look into a
In basal
===Feathers===
Apart from their eyes, a striking feature of many
In biats, feathers are organized into tracts, or pterylae, rather than covering the whole body. The flight feather tracts are the caudal (tail fan), left and right alar (wings), left and right aural (ears), and left and right pulmonary (upper tail); some of these are absent in more derived species. The body feathers are the dorsal tract (a U shape on the back that meets in front of the sauce plate), ventral tract (a U shape on the underbelly that meets at the gastralium), femoral tract (wing coverts; not to be confused with a bird’s femoral tract), capital tract (head and neck), and buccal tract (front of face). The buccal tract is usually split from the capital tract by the oral ring, but in certain quails, it instead covers the cheeks and throat.<ref>[[Krikrees#Feathers]]</ref>
===Legs and Hips===
Like other modern saucebacks, the legs of
The legs and outer toe bear long aerodynamic feathers similar to those of terran birds. They can be moved and folded using tendons running parallel with the wing, and when not in use they are usually folded upwards. Argusraptors and ophreys have the "wing toe" raised off the ground for monodactyl running and preventing the long feathers from dragging on the ground, respectively. In some flighted species, the wings are slotted to allow for thermal gliding.
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===Mouth Anatomy and Feeding===
Although nearly all living saucebacks have mandibles (or "tusks"), the mandibles of the
The oral ring--a ring of chitinous teeth present in the mouths of all beastworms (and which was ancestral to all "arthropod-like" binucleids)--is comparatively far more basal in anatomy, though the teeth themselves commonly have serrations (which are absent in most other saucebacks). The teeth aid in both processing food and in pulling it down into the throat to be swallowed. Some species such as the quail raptor have reduced teeth.
===Reproduction===
All
==Locomotion==
Like most other saucebacks,
The most universal of these is the flutter jump, where they appear to run in midair while their flight feathers flap furiously, which slows their fall, adjusts their trajectory, and allows them to land directly into a sprint. The motion, and its function, can be somewhat likened to alternating wing beats. Similar to the flutter jump is a form of wing-assisted incline running where the furious left-right flapping of the leg feathers creates a pushing force which allows smaller species to climb steep slopes without tumbling down.
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Flightless species are usually capable of gliding at some stage of their life. As implied by the presence of specifically flightless species, some species can fly as well; the legs of the [[interbiat]] and its descendants are long and feathered like a bird's wings, and they flap them to fly.
Some
The diversity of
<gallery>
Brighteyes.png|Most small
Interbiat.png|Descendants of the interbiat are capable of powered flight.
Argusraptor Complex.png|Argusraptors are monodactyl runners, walking on just a single horse-like hoof.
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==History==
[[File:Brighteyes.png|thumb|[[Brighteyes]] was the first
The first
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==Size==
[[File:Quail Raptor.png|thumb|left|At 20 centimeters in length, the [[Quail Raptor]] is the smallest of all
===Size Limits===
Terrestrial, flightless
The flighted biats have not had their maximum size calculated, however their combination of a very large number of lightweight traits (a skeleton that lacks mineralized components, feather-based wings, a wing-based launch which requires no additional pairs of limbs, and a small total number of digits on their limbs), a respiratory system that can very quickly become unidirectional and is well-suited to the rapid development of air sacs, and their flight muscles and respiratory system being in different parts of their body, it is speculated that they can grow much larger than the largest Terran pterosaurs.
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==Taxonomy and Diversity==
This is the placement of
{{clade|{{clade|{{clade|Waxfaces|Larvabacks}}|{{clade|2=Loafshells|1={{clade|Shrewbacks|{{clade|Basal Heartheads|'''
The relations between the different major groups of
{{clade|label1= Basal Forms |{{clade|Argusraptors|label2= Biats |{{clade|Ophreys|Quails}}}}}}
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</gallery>
'''Basal
'''Argusraptors''' are larger, cursorial, monodactyl, and often predatory
'''Biats''' or '''saucebirds''' are the flighted clade descended from the [[interbiat]]. Basal biats retain long tails, but some more derived species have shorter tails.
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