PhysOrg Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Everything about hummingbirds is rapid. An iridescent blur to the human eye, their movements can be captured with clarity only by high-speed video. Read the full article on PhysOrg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Merkord Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 A Marvelous Spatuletail hummingbird. Credit: Roger Ahlman, ABC At some point, an adventurous hummingbird took a sip of a flower's nectar, and the rest is history. Genome sequencing over the last decade has revealed birds to lack the gene T1R2, one of two that combine to allow animals to taste sugar. Alligators, on the other hand -- one of birds' closest relatives -- have both the necessary sweet tooth genes. The discrepancy suggests that as birds split off from dinosaurs on the evolutionary family tree, they lost their taste for sugar. Yet, hummingbirds are nectar fiends -- they can't get enough. But why? And how?Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/08/22/Birds-lost-their-sweet-tooth-hummingbirds-got-it-back/7101408715374/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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