must there be a title

I’ve not had time to write a post in a while. This post is probably somewhat confusing. But this discovery is so goddamn neat. We’ve just scratched the surface on something remarkable and I have so many questions. Here’s the study: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/17/2004805117 Other places to see my posts: INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK / ETSY / KICKSTARTER    

@kedreeva

terraforming avians is EXACTLY the kind of weird shit and science content I am on tunglr.hell to see.

Transcription of images:

Okay, when birds eat seeds, some of the seeds get digested, but others make it out intact and take root where they land.

Forest [sic] and meadows spread on the wings of birds.

Image of bird eating red berries off a tree branch, accompanied by the text, “We know that the eggs of some insects work the same way, because of their tough shells.”

Amidst the panic of global lockdowns a group of scientists quietly made a discovery that would fundamentally change our understanding of the world.

They fed fish eggs to ducks, and while most of them were digested, a tiny percentage of the eggs made it out alive, and hatched into fish.

Fish eggs, as it turns out, can be passed through the bodies of birds and survive, the same way seeds can.

Image of a water habitat in which ducks are swimming on top of the water and fish are swimming below.

Since ancient times, we’ve known that fish seem to magically appear in man made lakes and people would have no idea where they came from.

Now we know.

This is an absolute game-changer.

Image of fish leaping out of the water.

It changes what we knew about birds.

Birds migrate vast distances, but they’re not planes flying across continents.

Instead they’re more like long-haul truckers that rest and recharge at rivers and marshes along their journey. They eat, but also deposit the seeds of plants and fish.

Image of map of North and Central America with arrows showing bird migration from the Boreal Forest in the northernmost part of the continent going southward to the rest of the continent and to South America.

It’s like how early sailors would stop at Islands [sic] where they would release pigs, goats and rabbits. That way, when they stopped there the next time, they would have food to eat. (This led to massive ecological changes to places like Hawaii and the Galapagos.)

But apparently birds have carried the seeds of forests and fish across continents and oceans, for millions of years, stocking their own rest stops with plants and animals that are already part of their diet.

Are birds terraforming?

Illustration of ships on the sea.

It changes what we know about fish.

In Star Trek, a humanoid ancestor seeded planets with their species, so that millions of years laer, the inhabitants of those planets are all humanoid, but look very different owing to the different challenges they faced over time.

Four by 2 grid of Star Trek characters’ faces.

Is it basically what fish are now? Are fish in completely different areas related by a common ancestor because they were spread by birds?

It changes our understanding of history.

This thing has been going on for millions of years without us knowing. It’s not new. The seeds of trees, fish and insects, pieces of ecosystems, flew on the wings of birds before the rise of the first civilizations.

If flying animals can transfer ecosystems, what kind of world flew on the wings of the azhdarchids?

(these guys were the size of a small aircraft)

Illustration of bird-like creatures.

On a different historical note, ancient people believed in spontaneous generation. In other words, life just appeared out of nowhere…… mold just appeared on bread. Plants just started growing out of rock. Fish just appear in ponds that somebody dug two weeks ago……

Knowing what we know, it’s understandable they might think this way. What other ancient wisdoms are are [sic] missing out on? What else remains to be known?

Illustration of a tree with animals sprouting as fruit.

What does this mean for our stories, and the kinds of stories we tell?

Are dragons a key species that spread entire ecosystems?

Illustration of a fantasy world with a humanoid figure standing next to a wolf and looking up at a dragon in the sky.

the tenderness…. 

the whole quote is very heartwarming:

“And we are not the only animal that has to teach our young. Old lobsters show their migration routes to young ones by holding claws, the way we hold hands, and walking the long miles together. A kitten without a mother to teach her may not ever learn to hunt small mammals. Such cats will let mice run all over them—though once they are shown, they never forget. A bee coming home from her first pollen run will be stroked all over by the other bees in praise and encouragement, even though she’s probably carrying only one-tenth of what she will learn to in a few weeks. Beavers held in captivity without flowing water don’t know how to make dams—that knowledge was passed down through the generations until humans interrupted their process of enculturation.”

[Image: text that reads, "Old lobsters show their migration routes to young ones by holding claws, the way we hold hands, and walking the long miles together."]