Dinosaurs Without Bones (67 page)

p. 319
“For example, burrowing owls may take over appropriately sized mammal or gopher-tortoise burrows.” Martin, D.J. 1973. Selected aspects of burrowing owl ecology and behavior.
The Condor
, 75: 446-456.

p. 319
“Rough-winged swallows might usurp kingfisher burrows, and viceversa.” Martin (2013).

p. 319
“A male–female pair of Atlantic puffins, which normally mate for life, might return to the same burrow they used the previous year for nesting… .” Creelman, E., and Storey, A.E. 1991. Sex differences in reproductive behavior of Atlantic puffins.
The Condor
, 93: 390-398.

p. 319
“Complicating these underground neighborhoods is another bird, the Manx shearwater (
Puffinus puffinus
), which also nests in burrows… .” James, P.C. 1986. How do Manx shearwaters
Puffinus puffinus
find their burrows?
Ethology
, 71: 287-294.

p. 320
“Extreme examples are hummingbirds, some of which can produce thousands of wing beats per minute, or Arctic terns (
Sterna paradisaea
)… .” (1) Kircher, J.C. 1999.
Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics
. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey: 451 p. (2) Egevang, C., Stenhouse, I.J., Phillips, R.A., Petersen, A., Fox, J.W., and Silk, J.R.D. 2010. Tracking of Arctic terns
Sterna paradisaea
reveals longest animal migration.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 107: 2078-2081.

p. 320
“For instance, sandpipers do double taps—bang-bang—which leave distinctive two-holed patterns. In contrast, plovers keep their beaks on a beach surface while running along at high speed, making a more continuous and connected series of holes.” (1) Elbroch and Marks (2001). (2) Martin (2013).

p. 321
“With clams, oysters, and other bivalves, more subtle traces of bird predation might be on the shells themselves.” Martin (2013).

p. 322
“In urban environments of Japan, carrion crows (
Corvus corone
) … place these on the crosswalks of busy streets for cars to run over and break.” Nihei, Y. 1995. Variations of behavior of carrion crows
Corvus corone
using automobiles as nutcrackers.
Japan Journal of Ornithology
, 44: 21-35.

p. 322
“Insect-eating birds, such as grackles or starlings, systematically insert their beaks into soil or ground vegetation to find their food. Northern flickers in particular are both persistent and insidious in their ground probing.” Elbroch and Marks (2001).

p. 322
“Seeing that ant eating has been proposed as a lifestyle for some theropods, such as the Late Cretaceous
Xixianykus zhangi
of China… .” Xu, X., Wang, D.-Y., Sullivan, C., Hone, D.W.E., Han, F.-L., Yan, R.-H., and Du, F.-M. 2010. A basal parvicursorine (Theropoda: Alvarezsauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of China.
Zootaxa,
2413: 1-19.

p. 324
“Peacocks, in order to show off the full extent of their tail feathers, perform a slow pirouette, often defining a tight circle.” For one of the most exquisite descriptions of a peacock strutting its stuff, I recommend reading
Living with a Peacock
, written by famed Southern gothic writer Flannery O’Connor. Her essay was originally published in
Holiday
magazine, September 1961, but also was in one of her anthologies (
Mystery and Manners
, 1969) under the title
The King of Birds
.

p. 324
“Male plovers also make distinctive pre-mating trackways by high stepping (also called ‘marking time’) and placing one foot directly in front of the other.” Elbroch and Marks (2001).

p. 324
“Sometimes nicknamed the ‘amorous architects,’ male bowerbirds build a variety of structures… .” Frith, C.B., and Frith, D.W. 2004.
The Bowerbirds: Ptilonorhynchidae
. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K.: 508 p.

p. 325
“Some bowerbirds even use perspective in their handiwork … the only examples of such artistic renderings known outside of humans.” Endler, J.A. 2012. Bowerbirds, art and aesthetics: are bowerbirds artists and do they have an aesthetic sense?
Communicative and Integrative Biology
, 5: 281-283.

p. 325
“Fortunately, a lack of evidence for Mesozoic bowers did not stop the imaginations of screenwriters and computer-graphics artists for the Discovery Channel, in the TV series
Dinosaur Revolution
(2011)… .” This fun and ichnologically rich scene was in the first episode of this four-part series.

p. 325
“This scene starred a computer-generated image of the large feathered theropod
Gigantoraptor
, an oviraptorosaur from the Late Cretaceous (70
mya
) of Mongolia.” Xu, X., Tan, Q., Wang, J., Zhao, X., and Tan, L. 2007. A gigantic bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China.
Nature
, 447: 844-847.

p. 327
“The trace that results from a dust bath is a shallow semicircular depression slightly wider than the wingspan of the bird; sparrows make ones that are only about 10 to 15 cm (4–6 in) across, whereas turkeys’ dust baths are more than 50 cm (20 in) wide.” (1) Elbroch and Marks (2001). (2) Martin (2013).

p. 327
“On the opposite end of the size spectrum from sparrows, ostriches in Africa make dust baths by sitting down… .” Several videos of
ostriches dust-bathing are online, but probably my favorite (at the time of this writing) for its insights on the traces that might be left by a similar-sized feathered dinosaur is the following, titled “Ostrich having a dust bath”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e868pFsd2PI

p. 328
“However, paleontologist Darren Naish, in a 2013 blog post, made such a link by reviewing sunbathing in modern birds… .” Naish, D. 2013. It’s hot and sunny, so birds lie down and sunbathe.
Tetrapod Zoology
(
Scientific American
blog), http://blogs.scientificamerican. com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/07/22/sunbathing-birds-2013/: posted

July 22, 2013. Other references listed in this post include: (1) Hauser, D. 1957. Some observations on sunbathing in birds.
The Wilson Bulletin,
69: 78-90. (2) Johnston, R.F. 1965. Sunbathing by birds.
The Emu,
64: 325-326. (3) Horsfall, J. 1984. Sunbathing: is it for the birds?
New Scientist
, 103: 28-31.

p. 330
“This was verified with chickens (
Gallus gallus
), which are often impugned as the dumbest of all birds and thus deserving of roasting pans.” Karakashian, S.J., Gyger, M., and Marler, P. 1988. Audience effects on alarm calling in chickens (
Gallus gallus
).
Journal of Comparative Psychology
, 102: 129-135.

p. 330
“This sort of learning, recall, and teaching ability has been documented in American crows.” (1) Marzluff, J.M., Walls, J., Cornell, H.N., Withey, J.C., and Craig, D.P. 2010. Lasting recognition of threatening people by wild American crows.
Animal Behaviour
, 79: 699-707. (2) Cornell, H.N., Marzluff, J.M., and Pecoraro, S. 2012. Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows.
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B
, 279: 499-508. (3) These works were preceded by a book that provides an overview of the complexity of American crow behavior: Marzluff, J.M., and Angell, T. 2005.
In the Company of Crows
. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT: 408 p. I also recommend watching the
Nature
documentary,
A Murder of Crows
(2010), aired by PBS and available free online.

p. 330
“Other birds that can learn individual human faces include pigeons, magpies (
Pica pica
), and northern mockingbirds (
Mimus polyglottus
)… .” (1) Stephan, C., Wilkinson, A., and Huber, L. 2012. Have we met before? pigeons recognise familiar human faces.
Avian Biology Research
, 5: 75-80. (2) Lee, W.Y., Lee, S., Choe, J.C., and Jablonski, P.G. 2011. Wild birds recognize individual humans: experiments on magpies,
Pica pica
.
Animal Cognition
, 14: 817-825. (3) Levey, D.J.,
et al.
2009. Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 106: 8959-8962.

p. 330
“How about superb fairy-wrens (
Malurus cyaneus
) giving their chicks a ‘password’ (a single note) as a cue for feeding, but while the chicks are still snugly inside their eggs?” Colombelli-NeÅLgrel,
D., Hauber, M.E., Robertson, J., Sulloway, F.J., Hoi, H., Griggio, M., and Kleindorfer, S. 2012. Embryonic learning of vocal passwords in superb fairy-wrens reveals intruder cuckoo nestlings.
Current Biology
, 22: 2155-2160.

p. 330
“Nonetheless, when this was first documented starting in the 1960s, it was an eye-opener for behavioral biologists.” (1) Van Lawick-Goodall, J., and Van Lawick-Goodall, H. 1966. Use of tools by the Egyptian vulture,
Neophron percnopterus
.
Nature
, 212: 1468-1469. (2) Alcock, J. 1972. The evolution of the use of tools by feeding animals.
Evolution
, 26: 464-472. (3) Bentley-Condit, V.K., and Smith, E.O. 2010. Animal tool use: current definitions and an updated comprehensive catalog.
Behaviour
, 147: 185-32A.

p. 331
“Of these birds, New Caledonian crows are the most impressive of tool users and problem solvers.” Chappell, J., and Kacelnik, A. 2002. Tool selectivity in a non-primate, New Caledonian crow (
Corvus moneduloides
).
Animal Cognition
, 5: 71-78.

p. 331
“Woodpecker finches latch on to cactus spines or twigs with their beaks and then manipulate these like fine surgical tools to extract insect larvae from tight spots in trees.” Tebbich, S., Taborsky, M., Fessl, B., and Blomqvist, D. 2001. Do woodpecker finches acquire tool-use by social learning?
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B
, 268: 2189-2193.

p. 331
“Egyptian vultures and bristle-thighed curlews share the practice of grabbing a rock with their beaks and throwing these at eggs to break them open.” (1) Thouless, C.R., Fanshawe, J.H., and Bertram, C.R. 1989. Egyptian vultures
Neophron percnopterus
and ostrich
Struthio camelus
eggs: the origins of stone-throwing behavior.
Ibis
, 131: 9-15. (2) Marks, J.S., and Hall, C.S. 1992. Tool use by bristle-thighed curlews feeding on albatross eggs.
The Condor
, 94: 1032-1034.

p. 331
“Male palm cockatoos grasp sticks in their beaks, which they then drum against trees to alert females that they are in the area… .” Wood, G.A. 1988. Further field observations of the palm cockatoo
Probosciger aterrimus
in the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland.
Corella
, 12: 48-52.

p. 331
“Brown-headed nuthatches acquire short pieces of bark or sticks, which they lever against the bark on tree trunks to expose insects.” Morse, D.H. 1968. The use of tools by brown-headed nuthatches.
The Wilson Bulletin
, 80: 220-224.

p. 331
“These actually use mammal feces as a tool, by picking up pieces of bison or cattle dung, placing these in front of their burrows… .” Levey, D.J., Duncan, R.S., and Levins, C.F. 2004. Animal behaviour: use of dung as a tool by burrowing owls.
Nature
, 431: 39.

p. 331
“Lastly, a few species of herons, egrets, and seagulls go fishing by employing feathers, berries, and even bread as lures.” (1) Robinson,
S.K. 1994. Use of bait and lures by green-backed herons in Amazonian Peru.
The Wilson Bulletin
, 106: 567-569. (2) Post, R.J., Post, C.P.K., and Walsh, J.K. 2009. Little egret
(Egretta garzetta)
and grey heron
(Ardea cinerea)
using bait for fishing in Kenya.
Waterbirds
, 32: 450-452. (3) Ruxton, G.D., and Hansell, M.H. 2011. Fishing with a bait or lure: a brief review of the cognitive issues.
Ethology
, 117: 1-9.

p. 331
“So do birds have memes—culturally acquired behaviors that modify over time—as well as genes?” Blackmore, S. 2000.
The Meme Machine
. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K.: 264 p.

CHAPTER 11: DINOSAURIAN LANDSCAPES AND EVOLUTIONARY TRACES

p. 334
“Sinclair Oil Corporation encouraged this illusion by sponsoring dinosaur exhibits at the Chicago and New York World’s Fairs… .” To this day, Sinclair is still making this connection, and they are quite proud of how this marketing-by-dinosaurs was ahead of its time: http://www.sinclairoil.com/history/symbol_01.html

p. 334
“It turns out that nearly all petroleum is from algae, most of which were deposited and buried in marine environments… .” Stoneley, R. 1995.
Introduction to Petroleum Exploration for Non-Geologists
. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K.: 119 p.

p. 334
“Indeed, some of the most prolific petroleum reservoirs in the world are filled with oil that post-dates the end-Cretaceous extinction of dinosaurs.” Naim, A.E.M., and Alsharhan, A.S. 1997.
Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Geology of the Middle East
. Elsevier, Amsterdam: 878 p.

p. 337
“At this meeting, Tony Thulborn … gave a talk simply titled ‘Giant Tracks in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous) of Western Australia.’” Thulborn, T., 2002. Giant tracks in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous) of Western Australia.
In
Brock, G.A., and Talent, J.A. (editors),
First International Palaeontological Congress
, Abstracts No. 63, Geological Society of Australia, Sydney, 154-155.

p. 337
“In 2012, Thulborn elaborated on that idea in an article titled ‘Impact of Sauropod Dinosaurs on Lagoonal Substrates in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous), Western Australia.’” Thulborn, R.A. 2012. Impact of sauropod dinosaurs on lagoonal substrates in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous), Western Australia.
PLoS One
, 7(5): e36208. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036208.

p. 338
“Such grand disturbances of pliable mud or sand … are sometimes called ‘dinoturbation.’” Lockley (1991).