Influence of alimentary factors on the absorption of feed nutrients and poultry productivity

The article is a summary of the literature on the main aspects of the modern bird feeding system. Theoretical aspects and results of experimental research of scientists on the substantiation of parameters of protein and amino acid nutrition are given, which is an important factor that, under appropriate conditions can significantly guarantee the realization of the genetic potential of corresponding breeds and crosses of poultry. It is shown that an important aspect of protein nutrition is the ratio of feed amino acids. Their negative interaction can be caused by a deficiency of one or more amino acids, an imbalance between them, antagonism, and toxicity. This is accompanied by effects on various physiological and biochemical processes, significantly affects appetite, intestinal absorption, renal reabsorption and transport of amino acids, their catabolism, rate of protein decomposition, synthesis, and formation of toxic metabolic products. The data show that the required level of energy for the bird's body is provided by carbohydrates (mainly of plant origin) and lipids (fat supplements of various origins). It is noted that lipids promote the absorption, transport, and deposition of fat-soluble vitamins. The effectiveness of using fat supplements as energy depends on their source. At the same time, among the indispensable nutrients that have a significant impact on growth intensity, reproductive quality, poultry productivity, and biological value of products, an important role is played by macro-and micronutrients. Many researchers emphasize that along with the use of traditional feeds in poultry feeding, the possibilities of non-traditional cereals rich in protein and lipids are not fully used. A limiting factor in their use is the presence in their composition of anti-nutrients contained in many feeds. Once in the digestive tract of animals, they negatively affect the absorption of feed nutrients. In most cases, the consumption of such feed by animals is manifested in growth retardation, increased feed consumption, hormonal effects, and, less frequently, in the dysfunction of certain organs.

Ornithological insights from Taylor White's birds

The Taylor White Collection of paintings from the 1700s, held at the McGill University Library, includes 661 paintings that illustrate 832 birds from around the world. With illustrations of 443 species in 30 avian orders, this collection represents a substantial proportion of the bird species known at the time and is one of the most comprehensive and accurate collections of coloured bird illustrations made during the eighteenth century. Most of the paintings were made by Charles Collins and Peter Paillou from live birds or dead specimens in the cabinets and aviaries of White and his contemporaries. We compared a large sample of the paintings with the same birds depicted in modern bird guides to assess quantitatively the accuracy of the illustrations with respect to the colours and patterns of plumages and soft parts. We found that fewer than 3% of the paintings contained errors, and usually only in one of the 28 body regions that we assessed. Given this high level of accuracy, we identified a small red macaw from the West Indies as likely representing a previously unknown but now extinct subspecies of the Scarlet Macaw, and two other paintings of species that could not be convincingly matched to any known species.

Osteological complexes of the Bronze to Iron Age transitional period, and the Early Iron Age, in the hillfort of Maray 1 (Ishim River region)

The article deals with osteological complexes of the Maray 1 hillfort located in the forest-steppe area of the Ishim River region. The research materials were obtained from the excavations carried out in 2010 and 2019. The main periods of the site habitation recorded for the hillfort are the early chronological horizon represented by the settlement of the Krasnoozerka Culture of the Bronze to Iron Age transitional period (9th–7th c. BC), and the late cultural layer which is marked by the hillfort of the beginning of the Early Iron Age, left by the population of the Baitovo Culture (4th–2nd c. BC). From each layer associated with different periods of the site habitation, archaeo-zoological collections have been selected. The purpose of this work is to determine the type of economy of the Maray 1 population during the two major habitation phases. The essential research materials comprised of oste-ological collections obtained from the Krasnoozerka and Baitovo layers. The research technique included bone determinations based on comparison with the reference skeletal collections from the Museum of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Yekaterinburg), using anatomy atlases [Gromova, 1950]. Determination of subfossil bird bones was carried out in the same institute, and it in-cluded comparison of the bones from the settlement with the reference osteological collection of modern bird spe-cies. The species attribution was based on morphological structure of the bones and their fragments. The oste-ological collection of the Maray 1 hillfort is stored in the Museum under No. 2361. Analysis of the species compo-sition of osteological complexes from the two main habitation periods allowed distinguishing domestic and wild animals, including birds. The proportions of the number of bones and representatives of domestic and wild fauna have been analyzed. In the Krasnoozerka Culture materials, significant predominance of wild animal bones has been determined, which suggests that the economy of the Krasnoozerka settlement was dominated by the appropri-ating activities with a significant role of hunting (mainly elk). In the Baitovo layer, bones of domestic animals signifi-cantly prevail over those of wild fauna, suggesting that the economy was based on producing sectors.

Evolution of birds

This chapter explores the evolutionary history of birds. It considers the dinosaur origins of birds and the evolution of the modern bird lineages. The development of the modern bird from its prehistoric, reptilian ancestors is analysed by discussion of important fossil specimens, particularly that of Archaeopteryx, and the development of both morphological and biomolecular phylogenies. Evolution by natural selection is explained, as are processes of evolutionary adaptation and speciation. The conservation implications of hybridization are considered and the classification and nomenclature of birds is introduced. Throughout the chapter examples of current research are presented alongside established classic studies to engage the reader and provide a route into the relevant scientific literature.

Anatomy of Parahesperornis: Evolutionary Mosaicism in the Cretaceous Hesperornithiformes (Aves)

The Hesperornithiformes constitute the first known avian lineage to secondarily lose flight in exchange for the evolution of a highly derived foot-propelled diving lifestyle, thus representing the first lineage of truly aquatic birds. First unearthed in the 19th century, and today known from numerous Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Maastrichtian) sites distributed across the northern hemisphere, these toothed birds have become icons of early avian evolution. Initially erected as a taxon in 1984 by L. D. Martin, Parahesperornis alexi is known from the two most complete hesperornithiform specimens discovered to date and has yet to be fully described. P. alexi thus contributes significantly to our understanding of hesperornithiform birds, despite often being neglected in favor of the iconic Hesperornis. Here, we present a full anatomical description of P. alexi based upon the two nearly complete specimens in the collections of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, as well as an extensive comparison to other hesperornithiform taxa. This study reveals P. alexi to possess a mosaic of basal and derived traits found among other hesperornithiform taxa, indicating a transitional form in the evolution of these foot-propelled diving birds. This study describes broad evolutionary patterns within the Hesperornithiformes, highlighting the significance of these birds as not only an incredible example of the evolution of ecological specializations, but also for understanding modern bird evolution, as they are the last known divergence of pre-modern bird diversification.

Creating benchmark measurements of tropical forest bird communities in large plots

An understanding of how tropical bird communities might respond to climate change and other types of environmental stressors seems particularly urgent, yet we still lack, except for a few sites, even snapshot inventories of avian richness and abundances across most of the tropics. Such benchmark measurements of tropical bird species richness and abundances could provide opportunities for future repeat surveys and, therefore, strong insight into degrees and pace of change in community organization over time. The challenges of creating a network of benchmarked sites include high variation in detectability among species, general rarity of many species that creates hurdles for use of modern bird counting methods aimed at controlling for variation in detectability, and lack of a standardized protocol to create repeatable inventories. We argue that reasonably complete inventories of tropical bird communities require use of multiple survey techniques to provide internal calibrations of abundance estimates and require multiple visits to improve completeness of richness inventories. We suggest that a network of large (50–100 ha) plots scattered across the tropics can also provide insights into geographic variation in and drivers of avian community structure analogous to insights provided by the Smithsonian Center for Tropical Forest Science Forest Global Earth Observatory network of forest dynamics plots. Perhaps most importantly, large plots provide opportunities for use of multiple survey techniques to estimate abundances while also using some exactly repeatable survey techniques that can greatly improve abilities to quantify change over time. We provide guidance on establishment of and survey methods for large tropical bird plots as well as important recommendations for collection and archiving of metadata to safeguard the long-term utility of valuable benchmark data.

The Abyssinian Art of Louis Agassiz Fuertes in the Field Museum

This book documents the paintings and drawings executed by Louis Agassiz Fuertes during the Field Museum of Natural History’s seven-month expedition to Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in 1926–27. During that time Fuertes completed 70 field watercolors that illustrate 55 species of birds and four species of mammals. He also executed 34 pencil drawings, which illustrate 13 species of mammals and 11 species of birds, plus numerous miscellaneous sketches and small watercolors. This book identifies and describes the biology of all 69 species of birds and mammals illustrated by Fuertes and includes 32 color reproductions of Fuertes’s watercolors that were published as a limited-edition album in 1930 by the Field Museum. The 60,000-word text provides brief summaries of all these species’ ecology, behavior, and reproductive biology as well as information about their current populations and conservation status. A review of Fuertes’s life, his influence on modern bird and wildlife art, and his participation in and artistic contributions to the Field Museum’s Abyssinian Expedition is also included, as well as more than 250 bibliographic citations.

Remains of a barn owl (Tyto alba) from the Dinaledi Chamber, Rising Star Cave, South Africa

Excavations during November 2013 in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa uncovered over 1550 specimens of a new hominin, Homo naledi. A total of four modern bird bones were collected from the surface of the Dinaledi Chamber during the first phase of the initial excavations. While mentioned in the geological and taphonomic descriptions, the presumably modern or sub-modern bird remains have not been formally identified or described until now. Here we identify these remains as indistinguishable from those of a modern barn owl (Tyto alba). Tyto alba is today common to the region and known to contribute microfaunal remains at many Plio-Pleistocene sites in the Cradle of Humankind. Based on the greatest length measurement and breadth of the proximal articulation of the specimen, it is suggested that the owl from the Dinaledi Chamber is more similar to that of females of the species, despite the small sample sizes available for comparison. It is unclear how the remains of this female owl came to be in the remote Dinaledi Chamber. Significance: Owl bones from the Dinaledi Chamber are the only other macro-vertebrate remains from this Chamber. The other remains discovered are that of more than 15 individuals of the enigmatic Homo naledi. The remains of the Dinaledi Chamber owl further our understanding of the contents of the important material contained within the Dinaledi system as they are the only more recent fossils to be recovered from this area of the Rising Star Cave system and are therefore important in and of themselves as an indicator that more proximal parts of the Rising Star Cave system have been suitable for use by barn owls at greater time depths than the present.

Preservation of uropygial gland lipids in a 48-million-year-old bird

Although various kinds of organic molecules are known to occur in fossils and rocks, most soft tissue preservation in animals is attributed to melanin or porphyrins. Lipids are particularly stable over time—as diagenetically altered ‘geolipids’ or as major molecular constituents of kerogen or fossil ‘geopolymers’—and may be expected to be preserved in certain vertebrate tissues. Here we analysed lipid residues from the uropygial gland of an early Eocene bird using pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectroscopy. We found a pattern of aliphatic molecules in the fossil gland that was distinct from the host oil shale sediment matrix and from feathers of the same fossil. The fossil gland contained abundant n -alkenes, n -alkanes and alkylbenzenes with chain lengths greater than 20, as well as functionalized long-chain aldehydes, ketones, alkylnitriles and alkylthiophenes that were not detected in host sediment or fossil feathers. By comparison with modern bird uropygial gland wax esters, we show that these molecular fossils are likely derived from endogenous wax ester fatty alcohols and fatty acids that survived initial decay and underwent early diagenetic geopolymerization. These data demonstrate the high fidelity preservation of the uropygial gland waxes and showcase the resilience of lipids over geologic time and their potential role in the exceptional preservation of lipid-rich tissues of macrofossils.