Bird and Mammal Jeopardy

Do the Evolution

100

This avian foot morphology is the same one that Velociraptor used to run down prey

Anisodactyl

200

Therapsids outcompeted this reptile ancestor with a huge dorsal "fin" and a name that has nothing do do with the fish-gulping bird.

Pelycosaurs

300

These two mammal groups are most closely related to each other, in part because they share a common reproductive structure.

Placentals and Marsupials

400

Birds and theropod dinosaurs share many characteristics, including this type of neck.

S-shaped

500

The first true mammals were very small, such that hair may have been selected for because of their high ratio of these two variables (recall the spherical frog).

Surface Area and Volume

General Characteristics

100

Flight depends on this large morphological structure of birds, which James Patterson clearly forgot about.

Keeled Sternum

200

Given their name, it is odd that only 50% of this group has this structure.

Marsupium or Pouch.

300

Although some mammals lack it, this structure likely allowed it's namesake group to outcompete the others and dominate the planet.

Placenta.

400

These teeth are used by mammals to tear flesh, which makes sense for their functional group. 

Carnassials

500

This part of a feather was likely used to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, among other things.

Calamus.

Similarities and Differences

100

These mammals are more like birds in some ways, but you have to wonder what the omellete would taste like.

Monotremes

200

This morphological structure in birds is the equivalent of mammalian teeth.

Gizzard

300

Many birds and some mammals use this same strategy to deal with winter conditions.

Migration

400

Ducks, wild turkeys, and deer all produce offspring of this type, perhaps for the same ecological reasons.

Precocial

500

True (flapping) flight evolved this many times among vertebrates, although in very different ways.

Three

Sensing the World

100

Birds are mostly bad at this, but it is the primary sense of mammals.

Smell

200

Experiments in a planetarium showed that birds were using this to help them navigate at night.

Star Map

300

This functional group goes against the sensory norm for mammals, although maybe less than we initially thought.

Primates.

400

Many mammals have the equivalent of bird bristles, used to help them find food or navigate tight spaces.

Whiskers.

500

Mammals usually have more of this sort of cell within their eyes, which belies our nocturnal evolution.

Rods

Are We Dead Yet?

100

The sale of bison tongues, whooping crane feathers, and the trade of wild-caught parrots are all examples of this phenomenon that can reduce populations.

Overexploitation.

200

One of the biggest conservation issues facing birds and mammals is the continued destruction, fragmentation, and destruction of this basic necessity for populations.

Habitat

300

Ealgles, osprey, and other fish-eating birds where hit hard by this chemical, which Rachel Carson helped to ban.

DDT

400

This disease affects flying organisms, but only the one that hibernates in caves.

White Nose Syndrome

500

This flightless parrot is endangered because of invasive mammals, none of which are hobbits.

Kakapo