Grebe

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Grebes
Clark's Grebe, Aechmophorus clarkii
Clark's Grebe, Aechmophorus clarkii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Podicipediformes
Fürbringer, 1888
Family: Podicipedidae
Bonaparte, 1831
Genera

Grebes are members of the Podicipediformes order, a widely distributed order of freshwater diving birds, some of which visit the sea when migrating and in winter. This order contains only a single family, the Podicipedidae, containing some 20 species in 6 extant genera.

Contents


Podicipediformes are small to medium-large in size, have lobed toes, and are excellent swimmers and divers. However, they have their feet placed far back on the body, making them quite ungainly on land. They leave the water only to nest, walking very short distances upright like penguins. They can run for a short distance, but often fall over.

Grebes have narrow wings, and some species are reluctant to fly; indeed, two South American species are completely flightless. They respond to danger by diving rather than flying, and are in any case much less wary than ducks.

However, the North American and Eurasian species are all, of necessity, migratory over much or all of their ranges, and those species that winter at sea are also seen regularly in flight. Even the small freshwater Pied-billed Grebe of North America has occurred as a transatlantic vagrant to Europe on more than 30 occasions.

Bills vary from short and thick to long and pointed; the feet are always large, with broad lobes on the toes and small webs connecting the front three toes. The hind toe also has a small lobe. Recent experimental work has shown that these lobes work like the hydrofoil blades of a propeller. Curiously, the same mechanism apparently evolved independently in the extinct Cretaceous-age Hesperornithiformes, which are totally unrelated birds.

Grebes have unusual plumage. It is dense and waterproof, and on the underside the feathers are at right-angles to the skin, sticking straight out to begin with and curling at the tip. By pressing their feathers against the body, grebes can adjust their buoyancy. Often, they swim low in the water with just the head and neck exposed.

In the non-breeding season, grebes are plain-coloured in dark browns and whites. However, most have ornate and distinctive breeding plumages, often developing chestnut markings on the head area, and perform elaborate display rituals. The young, particularly those of the Podiceps genus, are often striped and retain some of their juvenile plumage even after reaching full size.

When preening, grebes eat their own feathers, and feed them to their young. The function of this behaviour is uncertain but it is believed to assist with pellet formation and to reduce their vulnerability to gastric parasites.

Grebes are also known for the distinctive noise they make when running, which can be likened to a repetitive, high-pitched whooping sound. It is unknown why they make this noise, but is thought to be a component of their mating ritual.

[edit] Systematics

The grebes are a radically distinct group of birds as regards their anatomy. Accordingly, they were at first believed to be related to the loons, which are also foot-propelled diving birds. However, as recently as the 1930s (Stolpe 1935), this was determined to be a crass example of convergent evolution by the strong selective forces encountered by unrelated birds sharing the same lifestyle at different times and in different habitat.

The cladistics vs. phenetics debate of the mid-20th century unfortunately revived scientific interest in generalizing comparisons. As a consequence, the discredited grebe-loon link was discussed again. This even went as far as proposing monophyly for grebes, loons, and the toothed Hesperornithiformes (Cracraft, 1982). In retrospect, the scientific value of the debate lie more in providing examples that a cladistic methodology is not incompatible with an overall phenetical scientific doctrine, and that thus, simply because some study "uses cladistics", it does not guarantee superior results.

Molecular studies such as DNA-DNA hybridization (Sibley & Ahlquist, 1990) and sequence analyses fail to resolve the relationships of grebes properly due to insufficient resolution in the former and long-branch attraction in the latter. Still - actually because of this - they do confirm that these birds form a fairly ancient evolutionary lineage (or possibly one that was subject to selective pressures down to the molecular level even), and they support the non-relatedness of loons and grebes.

Currently, the available evidence is being reassessed. Combining data from the different analyses seems to point at flamingos being the closest relatives of the grebes, a suggestion that has been proposed every now and then in the past - mainly because both groups are aquatic birds of very obscure relationships -, but generally ignored. Indeed, careful analyses of morphological characters (i.e., excluding known homoplasies) and more comprehensive molecular data suggest that this relationship is the most promising hypothesis to date. In addition, it has been shown that the Anaticola bird lice shared by flamingos and waterfowl, which were at one time used to support a close relationship between the latter two (which is now deemed utterly incorrect), are actually closely related to the grebes' Aquanirmus lice and almost certainly switched hosts from flamingos to waterfowl, not the other way around as it was usually assumed (Johnson et al. 2006).

[edit] Genera and species

[edit] Fossil grebes

The fossil record of grebes is sadly incomplete. There are no transitional forms between more conventional birds and the highly derived grebes known from fossils, or at least none that can be placed in the relationships of the group with any certainty. The enigmatic waterbird genus Juncitarsus, however, may be close to a common ancestor of flamingos and grebes.

Grebes suddenly appear in the fossil record in the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene, around 23-25 mya. While there are a few prehistoric genera that are now completely extinct, Thiornis (Late Miocene -? Early Pliocene of Libros, Spain) and Pliolymbus (Late Pliocene of WC USA) date from a time when most if not all extant genera were already present. Only the Early Miocene Miobaptus from Czechoslovakia might be somewhat closer to the ancestral grebes, but more probably belongs to an extinct lineage. Indeed, Miobaptus is rivalled or even exceeded in age by a species of the modern genus Podiceps.

A few more recent grebe fossils could not be assigned to modern or prehistoric genera as of now:

  • Podicipedidae gen. et sp. indet. (San Diego Late Pliocene of California) - formerly included in Podiceps parvus (Murray 1967)[verification needed]
  • Podicipedidae gen. et sp. indet. UMMP 49592, 52261, 51848, 52276, KUVP 4484 (Late Pliocene of WC USA: Jehl 1967)
  • Podicipedidae gen. et sp. indet. (Glenns Ferry Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene of Idaho, USA: Wetmore 1933, Jehl 1967)

[edit] References

  • Cracraft, Joel (1982): Phylogenetic relationships and monophyly of loons, grebes, and hesperornithiform birds, with comments on the early history of birds. Systematic Zoology 31: 35-56. DOI:10.2307/2413412 (HTML abstract)
  • Jehl, Joseph R. Jr (1967): Pleistocene Birds from Fossil Lake, Oregon. Condor 69(1): 24-27 PDF fulltext
  • Konter, André (2001): Grebes of our world : visiting all species on 5 continents. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-33-4
  • Murray, Bertram G. Jr (1967): Grebes from the Late Pliocene of North America. Condor 69(3): 277-288. PDF fulltext
  • Sibley, Charles Gald & Monroe, Burt L. Jr. (1990): Distribution and taxonomy of the birds of the world: A Study in Molecular Evolution. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. ISBN 0-300-04969-2
  • Stolpe, M. (1935): Colymbus, Hesperornis, Podiceps:, ein Vergleich ihrer hinteren Extremität. Journal für Ornithologie 80(1): 161-247. [Article in German] DOI:10.1007/BF01908745
  • Wetmore, Alexander (1933): Pliocene bird remains from Idaho. Smithsonian Misc. Coll., 87:1-12.

[edit] External links

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