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I'm constantly astonished by birds. They seem to be the ultimate evolutionary optimisers, which makes sense given their requirements. They seem to be incredibly

I'm constantly astonished by birds. They seem to be the ultimate evolutionary optimisers, which makes sense given their requirements. They seem to be incredibly efficeient with energy, weight and space. It's not just physical feats like this, but the way some of the the corvids pack incredible brains in a volume and mass significantly less than other non-flying animals with roughly similar levels of intellegence (although I appreciate that cross-species intelligence comparisons are always difficult).

damagednoob 5y ago
And these are the evolutionary traits that won. It's incredible to me to imagine all the configurations of different traits nature threw at this problem and all the sentience that was lost in the process.
jasonhansel 5y ago
It's things like this that remind you that birds evolved from dinosaurs (in fact, recently birds have been described as just a kind of dinosaur, the only kind to survive the asteroid impact).
- kijin 5y ago
  When the climate turns against you, efficiency is the one trait that helps you survive with limited resources. The big heavy dinos didn't have that. Nor did the Neanderthals. The problem with efficiency is that when you have more than enough resources, you get obese very quickly. Like chickens and modern humans. :)
- mig39 5y ago
  I've heard the term "non-avian dinosaur" a lot these days.
panick21_ 5y ago
All animals that survived to this day are the ultimate evolutionary optimisers that is why they still exists.
- mynameisvlad 5y ago
  Evolution isn’t “one and done”, so really most animals that survived today are the current ultimate version of themselves. Some animals are in the middle of evolutionary leaps, and some individuals might have “bad” versions of certain genes are a result.
hawk_ 5y ago
indeed > males weigh 190–400 g (6.7–14.1 oz), while females weigh 260–630 g (9.2–22.2 oz); quite efficient, sentient automaton. on the other hand the tracker we built keeps going offline because it needs constant recharging :-)
- richardw 5y ago
  And the bird has to carry the tracker around. Put a tracker on me for 9000 miles and you’ll get some complaints.

damagednoob 5y ago

And these are the evolutionary traits that won. It's incredible to me to imagine all the configurations of different traits nature threw at this problem and all the sentience that was lost in the process.

jasonhansel 5y ago

It's things like this that remind you that birds evolved from dinosaurs (in fact, recently birds have been described as just a kind of dinosaur, the only kind to survive the asteroid impact).

kijin 5y ago
When the climate turns against you, efficiency is the one trait that helps you survive with limited resources. The big heavy dinos didn't have that. Nor did the Neanderthals. The problem with efficiency is that when you have more than enough resources, you get obese very quickly. Like chickens and modern humans. :)
mig39 5y ago
I've heard the term "non-avian dinosaur" a lot these days.

panick21_ 5y ago

All animals that survived to this day are the ultimate evolutionary optimisers that is why they still exists.

mynameisvlad 5y ago
Evolution isn’t “one and done”, so really most animals that survived today are the current ultimate version of themselves. Some animals are in the middle of evolutionary leaps, and some individuals might have “bad” versions of certain genes are a result.

hawk_ 5y ago

indeed > males weigh 190–400 g (6.7–14.1 oz), while females weigh 260–630 g (9.2–22.2 oz); quite efficient, sentient automaton. on the other hand the tracker we built keeps going offline because it needs constant recharging :-)

richardw 5y ago
And the bird has to carry the tracker around. Put a tracker on me for 9000 miles and you’ll get some complaints.