Speculative Evolution

[Jason Brougham]

Recently Dr. Stephen Brusatte answered a question in this article, about future evolution, by Becky Ferreira, in Defector.com. He picked pigeons as candidates to become giant, flightless, land animals one day. https://defector.com/which-pests-shall-inherit-the-earth 

I added some thoughts on giant flightless pigeons and these kinds of future dinosaurs on my new Substack, which I hope to keep mostly about birds and other dinosaurs, at: https://jasonbrougham.substack.com/publish/posts

Thank you.

-Jason

[Ronald ORENSTEIN]

Of course, pigeons already did become giant flightless land animals, in the Mascarenes. 

Ronald Orenstein 1825 Shady Creek Court Mississauga, ON L5L 3W2 Canada ronorenstein.blogspot.com

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[Tim Williams]

Ronald Orenstein <ron.or...@rogers.com> wrote:

> Of course, pigeons already did become giant flightless land animals, in the Mascarenes. 

And in Fiji (Viti Levu): _Natunaornis gigoura_.  Like the Mascarene flightless pigeons, also extinct.

[Jason Brougham]

Exactly! I cover that in the Substack post (the second one: Pigeons Stage A Coo), and that is surely why Dr. Brusatte chose them.

Yet I choose other candidates and give my reasons. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/jasonbrougham/p/pigeons-inherit-the-earth?r=57j0o0&utm_medium=ios

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From: dinosaurma...@googlegroups.com <dinosaurma...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tim Williams <tij...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 12:29:53 AM
To: DinosaurMa...@googlegroups.com <DinosaurMa...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DMG] Speculative Evolution

 

EXTERNAL SENDER

Ronald Orenstein <ron.or...@rogers.com> wrote:

> Of course, pigeons already did become giant flightless land animals, in the Mascarenes. 

And in Fiji (Viti Levu): _Natunaornis gigoura_.  Like the Mascarene flightless pigeons, also extinct.

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[Gregory Paul]

There is a serious project to, using DNA engineering, to create a dodo like pigeon and populate the below islands with them. The restored habitats currently lack the big fruit eating pigeons they need. 

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[Jason Brougham]

Fascinating. It might be hard to imbue them with all the instincts they’d need to navigate the seasonal challenges there. I also read they were introducing tortoises? Maybe Aldabra tortoises. 

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Subject: Re: [DMG] Speculative Evolution

 

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[Thomas Richard Holtz]

Yes. Aldabrachelys has been introduced there to replace the extinct giant Mascerne tortoises.

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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tho...@umd.edu         Phone: 301-405-4084
Principal Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology

Office: CHEM 1225B, 8051 Regents Dr., College Park MD 20742

Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/

Phone: 301-405-6965
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                        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
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