Welcome to the Anthropocene Museum, where we discuss the world as it has been
in the 10 million years since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Shortly after the start of the Industrial Revolution,
there was a mass extinction event in which 50% of all plant and animal species
went extinct. The cause of this mass extinction was... us. Well, our ancestors.
Human populations rose briefly into the billions and changed the world in big ways.
While many species did go extinct,
the more adaptable ones were able to survive and are still with us today.
So let's look at some modern birds that got their surprising starts with human-made changes.
Like the Giant Raven! As wel all know, Giant Ravens are dog-sized
birds that are incredibly smart. What you might not have known,
though, is that they got their start during the mass extinction event.
Warming temperatures opened up huge swathes of territory in the north.
And the ravens were well-positioned to move into this new range.
Their numbers increased dramatically. And so did their social intelligence.
Flocks of ravens formed loose communities which maintain communal seed caches and
object collections. It's actually pretty hard to get a remote camera anywhere where it can
observe a Giant Raven, because they will figure out how to detach and collect those cameras.
What's even more surprising is that objects appear to be traded from one community to
the next. We have even found remote cameras from Europe in communities in North America.
We are studying their culture as best we can without interfering with their development.
Then there's the Fractal Peacock. Peacocks existed in the early Anthropocene. They
survived the changing Earth just fine. And were introduced to many parts of the world,
especially on islands. Probably due to people transporting them there.
The long feathers were a symbol for other peacocks. Those selective pressures stayed
constant, and peacocks around the world on different islands have developed amazingly
different plumage. But none are more incredible than the Fractal Peacock of the Caribbean islands.
These birds are able to spread out their tails and flash them
through different colors by minutely changing the angle
of their feathers. It's always interesting to see the different ways that animals can succeed.
And finally, the Ruin Dove. Doves or pigeons were one of the most common
birds in the early Anthropocene. And they're still with us today, in much reduced numbers.
But their unique environment of ancient cities led to a new species... the Ruin Dove.
Ruin Doves get a significant portion of their calcium from eating small flecks of cement
that were used in ancient buildings. In fact, they cannot survive without a source of cement.
Fortunately, humans constructed, and then abandoned enough cities made out of concrete
during the millions of generations that there was always enough habitat to maintain the Ruin Doves.
Even today, when we have much better materials, we still have to make some
concrete using this ancient recipe to keep Ruin Doves from going extinct.
It seems inevitable that animals would be changed by humans in some way,
but this is not the change you would expect.
It's interesting to see how these humans had so much power to shape species.
Their actions caused millions of species to disappear forever,
cutting a number of branches off the evolutionary tree. And they also caused other species like the
Ruin Dove to change entirely. We can't ask them why they did these things,
and we don't have records that help. But if I had a time machine I would want to ask them
to consider how they use their power. Because the consequences last much, much longer than expected.
I hope you enjoyed this tour modern birds. You can keep learning about
the birds of the early Anthropocene by watching another video on this channel.
And subscribe before you go. Thanks for stopping by this week to learn what makes Life awesome!