Evidence found of ostriches in India 25,000 years ago

A team of researchers with members from several institutions in India has found evidence of ostrich relatives living in India as far back as 25,000 years ago. In their paper uploaded to the open access site PLOS ONE, the ...

Ostriches run fast because of 'springy' tendons

Australian and U.S. researchers studying the movement of ostriches have discovered the giant flightless birds can store double the elastic energy per step in their tendons than humans can. This considerably reduces the effort ...

Ancient eggshell protein breaks through the DNA time barrier

Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield, York and Copenhagen have identified fossil proteins in a 3.8 million year-old ostrich eggshell, suggesting that proteins could provide valuable new insights into the evolutionary ...

More efficient and reliable robotic-control systems

When a robot is moving one of its limbs through free space, its behavior is well-described by a few simple equations. But as soon as it strikes something solid—when a walking robot's foot hits the ground, or a grasping ...

Asian 'phoenix' lived with the dinosaurs

Palaeontologists said on Wednesday they had found the fossilised remains of a giant bird that lived in Central Asia more than 65 million years ago, a finding which challenges theories about the diversity of early birds.

Scientist cites enlarged skeletal muscles as reason birds exist

A developmental biologist at New York Medical College is proposing a new theory of the origin of birds, which traditionally has been thought to be driven by the evolution of flight. Instead, Stuart A. Newman, Ph.D., credits ...

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