Brains and brawn helped crows and ravens take over the world

The black color of crows and ravens makes them sound harsh. They are intelligent birds that use tools and speak a lot of words.

The way they are diverse is less appreciated. Their ability to live in a variety of habitats is accompanied by their diversity. They are one of the most common birds in the world. The rapid global expansion of crows and ravens was unlike other family members that stayed mostly within single continents.

What is the secret to the planetary expansion?

They have a great flying ability, which makes it easier for them to get to new places. New research from Washington University shows that big bodies and big brains played an important role in helping crows and ravens survive in new climates.

The study was published in Nature Communications.

It is important to consider the ability to survive once you get to a new place when thinking about processes of global diversification. Carlos Botero, assistant professor of biology in Arts and Sciences, said that their work suggests that crows and the ravens diversified quickly and widely because they were good at adapting to different environments.

There are three convenient traits.

The authors show that crows and ravens have incredible ability in the work led by first-author Joan Garcia-Porta, a research associate in biology in Arts and Sciences and now a fellow in the Department of Genetics at the University of Barcelona.

The scientists found that the Corvids have longer wing lengths, bigger body sizes and bigger brain sizes than other Corvids.

The three very convenient combinations of traits are what allowed this group of birds to colonize and spread across the world.

Birds were able to spread across the world because of higher flying capacities. The big brains of crows and ravens suggest that they were flexible. They were able to figure out how to live in a new environment because they were smarter than other Corvids. Their bigger body size gave them a competitive advantage over smaller species, helping them establish in a new place.

These new insights on how these birds were able to do things that even close relatives did not is exciting.

New homes.

During their rapid expansion across the planet, crows and ravens experienced high rates of trait evolution and speciation. They had the highest rates compared to other members of the family.

They were exposed to new pressures when they arrived in a new environment. Their ability to live in the cold northern part of the world after moving from a tropical rainforest likely required very different strategies.

These new environments often favor changes to an organisms phenotype that facilitate survival and performance. Botero said that the process is known as "optimization selection."

Increasing beak shape variation in the Corvidae family is something that crows and ravens have to do.

As they colonized new environments, the scientists found that they increased body size variation.

Thanks to these amazing birds, we now understand a bit more the processes by which animals rapidly expand across the planet and how this geographic expansion leads to the production of new species with new morphologies.

Nature Communications will publish "Niche expansion and adaptive divergence in the global radiation of crows and ravens" on April 21, 2022.

More information: Niche expansion and adaptive divergence in the global radiation of crows and ravens, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29707-5 Journal information: Nature Communications Citation: Brains and brawn helped crows and ravens take over the world (2022, April 21) retrieved 21 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-brains-brawn-crows-ravens-world.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.