Parasite Fauna of Ostriches, Emus and Rheas

Comparative digesta retention patterns in ratites

Ratites differ distinctively in the anatomy of their digestive tract. For example, Ostriches (Struthio camelus) have a particularly long, voluminous colon and long paired caeca, Rheas (Rhea spp.) are characterised by a short colon with particularly prominent paired caeca, and Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) – have neither very prominent caeca nor a prominent colon. We tested whether digesta exc...

Comparative methane emission by ratites: Differences in food intake and digesta retention level out methane production.

Ratites differ in the anatomy of their digestive organs and their digesta excretion patterns. Ostriches (Struthio camelus) have large fermentation chambers and long digesta retention, emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) have a short gut and short retention times, and rheas (Rhea americana) are intermediate. A recent study showed that ostriches produce as much methane (CH4) as expected for a similar...

Distinct developmental pathways underlie independent losses of flight in ratites.

Recent phylogenetic studies question the monophyly of ratites (large, flightless birds incorporating ostriches, rheas, kiwis, emus and cassowaries), suggesting their paraphyly with respect to flying tinamous (Tinamidae). Flightlessness and large body size have thus likely evolved repeatedly among ratites, and separately in ostriches (Struthio) and emus (Dromaius). Here, we test this hypothesis ...

Serosurvey of selected avian pathogens in brazilian commercial rheas (Rhea americana) and ostriches (Struthio camelus)

Gait-specific energetics contributes to economical walking and running in emus and ostriches.

A widely held assumption is that metabolic rate (Ė(met)) during legged locomotion is linked to the mechanics of different gaits and this linkage helps explain the preferred speeds of animals in nature. However, despite several prominent exceptions, Ė(met) of walking and running vertebrates has been nearly uniformly characterized as increasing linearly with speed across all gaits. This descripti...