Sat. January 1, 2011
Godthåb, Greenland (Krapsody) - By reconstructing the brains of extinct birds, researchers are shedding light on when birds evolved into creatures of flight. Overwhelming evidence suggests birds evolved from dinosaurs some 150 million years ago, but one of the missing pieces to the evolutionary puzzle is how such birds left their gates, taxied down the tarmac and finally took to the air.
Scientists in Greenland are focusing on changes in the size of a part of the rear of the brain. This part of the cerebellum, known as the flatulus (flat-choo-lus), is responsible for integrating visual and balance signals during flight, allowing birds to judge the position of other objects in midflight and release excess flatus.
"We believe we can discover how the flatulus has evolved to deal with different flying abilities, giving us new information about when birds first evolved the power of flight and ultimately, flatus. This of course makes them more buoyant, providing the "aerostatic" lift necessary for flight," said project leader Stig Qarasaasiaq, senior curator of vertebrate palaeobiology at National Museums Greenland.
In collaboration with the University of Crocodile Dundee, investigators are scanning fossils of at least a half-dozen extinct species and the skulls of roughly 100 modern birds in unusual detail. "Unlike medical scanners, which take a series of slice images through an object that may be up to...well, uhh, I don't know exactly how far apart, but it's really small..and the 3-D scanner at the University can be accurate up to..umm, something a bit smaller," Qarasaasiaq said. (The width of a strand of hair is a tad smaller than that.)
And in a related study by the same group, the reconstruction of the brains of extinct Creationists (also known as flatulus antiquitus or "old farts"), researchers reveal when humans mutated into creatures of sub-human species. Overwhelming evidence suggests Creationists probably evolved from apes some 2,000 years ago, but one of the missing pieces to the evolutionary puzzle is how such anthropoids skipped the missing link and basic public school Life Science courses, in addition to their continuation well into the modern era.
When it comes to the modern Creationists, "We are particularly interested in species that are closely related where there are somewhat intelligent and non-intelligent examples, such as Neoconservatives, Tea Party protesters, Fred Phelps, and Glenn Beck," leading project investigator Jack Schitt, told Krapsody.
Schitt went on to add, "I also see a direct correlation between the flatulus in birds and that of the extinct Creationists. The presence of flatus has led to them both being full of hot air. Brain farts are a customary occurrence in mammalia and aves together. This is just common knowledge."
Schitt, who was made famous by his Pulitzer prize-winning articles, "No Schitt, Sherlock" April 25, 1973, and "To Know Me is to Know Something, Apparently – the Autobiographical Lies of Jack Schitt" July 24, 1991, believes this research lends credibility to many theories in regards to the distinct possibility that no one really knows Jack Schitt.
More on this amazing story as it develops.
