Brains and brawn helped crows and ravens take over the world wustl NatureComms
World distributions of all species of Corvidae excluding Corvus and all species of Corvus. Credit: Botero laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis;Crows and ravens are well known for their black color and the harsh"caw" sound they make. They are intelligent birds that use tools, solve complex abstract problems and speak a volume of words.
Using specimens housed in museums across Europe and the U.S., the scientists found that they have longer wing lengths, bigger body sizes and bigger relative brain sizes compared with other Corvids. "We are excited with these new insights on how these birds were able to do things that even close relatives did not," Botero said."It truly seems that their incredible behavioral flexibility may have played a major role in allowing these birds to survive initial periods of maladaptation and hang in there long enough for selection to catch up and produce a range of new species in the process.
For crows and ravens, that meant acquiring new beak shapes that did not exist in any other Corvid, thereby increasing beak shape variation in the Corvidae family.
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