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93-437: Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills . They belong to the family Ciconiidae , and make up the order Ciconiiformes / s ɪ ˈ k oʊ n i . ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and ibises , but those families have been moved to other orders. Storks dwell in many regions and tend to live in drier habitats than

186-485: A muster of storks and a phalanx of storks. Storks tend to use soaring , gliding flight, which conserves energy. Soaring requires thermal air currents. Ottomar Anschütz 's famous 1884 album of photographs of storks inspired the design of Otto Lilienthal 's experimental gliders of the late nineteenth century. Storks are heavy, with wide wingspans : the marabou stork , with a wingspan of 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in) and weight up to 8 kg (18 lb), joins

279-648: A Phanerozoic low in diversity by the late Oligocene, and the temperate forests and jungles of the Eocene were replaced by forest and scrubland. The closing of the Tethys Seaway destroyed its tropical biota. The Oi1 event of the Eocene-Oligocene transition covered the continent of Antarctica with ice sheets, leaving Nothofagus and mosses and ferns clinging to life around the periphery of Antarctica in tundra conditions. Angiosperms continued their expansion throughout

372-668: A broader trend of global cooling lasting from the Bartonian to the Rupelian. The transition is marked by the Oi1 event, an oxygen isotope excursion occurring approximately 33.55 million years ago, during which oxygen isotope ratios decreased by 1.3 ‰ . About 0.3–0.4 ‰ of this is estimated to be due to major expansion of Antarctic ice sheets. The remaining 0.9 to 1.0 ‰ was due to about 5 to 6 °C (9 to 10 °F) of global cooling . The transition likely took place in three closely spaced steps over

465-487: A critical threshold value. Brachiopod oxygen isotope ratios from New Zealand suggest that a proto-Subtropical Convergence developed during the Early Oligocene, with northern New Zealand being subtropical and southern and eastern New Zealand being cooled by cold, subantarctic water. Oligocene climate following the Eocene-Oligocene event is poorly known. There were several pulses of glaciation in middle Oligocene, about

558-484: A farmer's field, with the moral that those who associate with wicked people can be held accountable for their crimes. The Fox and the Stork involves a fox who invites a stork for dinner and provides soup in a dish that the stork cannot drink from, and is in turn invited for dinner by the stork and given food in a narrow jug which he cannot access. It cautions readers to follow the principle of do no harm . The third fable involves

651-469: A group of frogs that are dissatisfied with the king that Zeus has given them, an inanimate log, and who are then punished with a new King Stork (a water-snake in some versions) who eats the frogs. King Stork has subsequently entered the English language as a term for a particularly tyrannical ruler. According to European folklore, the white stork is responsible for bringing babies to new parents. The legend

744-571: A major mountain chain in the Oligocene, as subduction became more direct into the coastline. Climate during the Oligocene reflected a general cooling trend following the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum . This transformed the Earth's climate from a greenhouse to an icehouse climate. The Eocene-Oligocene transition was a major cooling event and reorganization of the biosphere, being part of

837-460: A quarry at Massignano , Italy . However, this GSSP has been criticized as excluding the uppermost part of the type Eocene Priabonian Stage and because it is slightly earlier than important climate shifts that form natural markers for the boundary, such as the global oxygen isotope shift marking the expansion of Antarctic glaciation (the Oi1 event). The upper boundary of the Oligocene is defined by its GSSP at Carrosio , Italy , which coincides with

930-500: A range of reptiles, small mammals, insects, fish, amphibians and other small invertebrates. Storks usually hunt for animals in shallow water. Any plant material consumed is usually by accident. Mycteria storks are specialists in feeding on aquatic vertebrates, particularly when prey is concentrated by lowering water levels or flooding into shallows. On marine mudflats and mangrove swamps in Sumatra , milky storks feed on mudskippers , probing

1023-460: A semiarid prairie home and included entelodonts like Archaeotherium , camelids (such as Poebrotherium ), running rhinoceratoids , three-toed equids (such as Mesohippus ), nimravids , protoceratids , and early canids like Hesperocyon . Merycoidodonts, an endemic American group, were very diverse during this time. Australia and South America became geographically isolated and developed their own distinctive endemic fauna. These included

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1116-430: A very diverse diet when living on human modified habitats such as agricultural landscapes. The foraging method used by the generalists is to stalk or walk across grassland or shallow water, watching for prey. Storks range from being solitary breeders through loose breeding associations to fully colonial . The jabiru, Ephippiorhynchus storks and several species of Ciconia are entirely solitary when breeding. In contrast

1209-596: Is another migrant, albeit one that migrates within the tropics. It breeds in northern Africa, from Senegal to the Red Sea, during the wet season, and then migrates to Southern Africa. Many species that are not regular migrants will still make smaller movements if circumstances require it; others may migrate over part of their range. This can also include regular commutes from nesting sites to feeding areas. Wood storks have been observed feeding 130 km (80 mi) from their breeding colony. Storks are carnivorous predators, taking

1302-617: Is discernible in pollen counts from the Tibetan Plateau, which also show that the South Asian Monsoon had already developed by the late Oligocene. Around 25.8 Ma, the South Asian Monsoon underwent an episode of major intensification brought on by the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. A deep 400,000-year glaciated Oligocene-Miocene boundary event is recorded at McMurdo Sound and King George Island . The early Eocene climate

1395-604: Is found in Australasia. Storks are more diverse and common in the tropics, and the species that live in temperate climates for the most part migrate to avoid the worst of winter. They are fairly diverse in their habitat requirements. Some species, particularly the Mycteria "wood storks" and Anastomus openbills, are highly dependent on water and aquatic prey, but many other species are far less dependent on this habitat type, although they will frequently make use of it. Species like

1488-603: Is named after the Arabic word for holy man, murābiṭ , due to the perceived holy nature of the species. The adjutants are named after the military rank , referring to their stiff, military-like gait. A DNA study found that the families Ardeidae , Balaenicipitidae , Scopidae and the Threskiornithidae belong to the Pelecaniformes . This would make Ciconiidae the only group. Storks were distinct and possibly widespread by

1581-431: Is sometimes reported that storks lack syrinxes and are mute, they do have syrinxes, and are capable of making some sounds, although they do not do so often. The syrinxes of storks are "variably degenerate" however, and the syringeal membranes of some species are found between tracheal rings or cartilage, an unusual arrangement shared with the ovenbirds . Storks have a nearly cosmopolitan distribution , being absent from

1674-503: Is superficially similar to the herons, with long legs and necks, but they are more heavy-set. There is some sexual dimorphism (differences between males and females) in size, with males being up to 15% bigger than females in some species (for example the saddle-billed stork), but almost no difference in appearance. The only difference is in the colour of the iris of the two species in the genus Ephippiorhynchus . The bills of storks are large to very large, and vary considerably between

1767-450: Is very ancient, but was popularised by an 1839 Hans Christian Andersen story called "The Storks". German folklore held that storks found babies in caves or marshes and brought them to households in a basket on their backs or held in their beaks. These caves contained adebarsteine or "stork stones". The babies would then be given to the mother or dropped down the chimney. Households would notify when they wanted children by placing sweets for

1860-525: The Ancient Greek word pelargos for stork, required citizens to take care of their aged parents. The Greeks also held that killing a stork could be punished with death. Storks feature in several of Aesop's Fables, most notably in The Farmer and the Stork , The Fox and the Stork , and The Frogs Who Desired a King . The first fable involves a stork who is caught with a group of cranes who are eating grain in

1953-681: The Andean condor in having the widest wingspan of all living land birds. Their nests are often very large and may be used for many years. Some nests have been known to grow to over 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in diameter and about 3 metres (9.8 ft) in depth. All storks were once thought to be monogamous , but this is only partially true. While storks are generally socially monogamous, some species exhibit regular extra-pair breeding. Popular conceptions of storks' fidelity, serial monogamy , and doting parental care contribute to their prominence in mythology and culture, especially in western folklore as

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2046-475: The Mycteria storks have sensitive tips that allow them to detect prey by touch (tactilocation) where cloudy conditions would not allow them to see it. The most specialised bills of any storks are those of the two openbills ( Anastomus ), which as their name suggests, is open in the middle when their bill is closed. These bills have evolved to help openbills feed on their primary prey item, aquatic snails. Although it

2139-441: The Mycteria storks, Abdim's stork, openbills and Leptoptilos storks breed in colonies which can range from a couple of pairs to thousands. Many of these species breed in colonies with other waterbirds, which can include other species of storks, herons and egrets, pelicans, cormorants and ibises. White storks, Oriental storks and Maguari storks are all loosely colonial, and may breed in nests that are within visual range of others of

2232-733: The Oligocene . Like most families of aquatic birds, storks seem to have arisen in the Palaeogene , maybe 40–50 million years ago (mya). For the fossil record of living genera, documented since the Middle Miocene (about 15 mya) at least in some cases, see the genus articles. No species or subspecies of stork is known to have gone extinct in historic times. A systematic literature review uncovered nearly 1,000 papers on storks, but showed most stork species to lack scientific understanding suggesting that many species should be classified as Data Deficient on

2325-426: The archaeocete cetaceans began to decrease in diversity due to their lack of echolocation, which was very useful as the water became colder and cloudier. Other factors to their decline could include climate changes and competition with today's modern cetaceans and the requiem sharks , which also appeared in this epoch. Early desmostylians , like Behemotops , are known from the Oligocene. Pinnipeds appeared near

2418-651: The creodonts that had dominated the Paleocene in the Old World. Rodents and rabbits underwent tremendous diversification due to the increase in suitable habitats for ground-dwelling seed eaters, as habitats for squirrel-like nut- and fruit-eaters diminished. The primates, once present in Eurasia, were reduced in range to Africa and South America. Many groups, such as equids , entelodonts , rhinos , merycoidodonts , and camelids , became more able to run during this time, adapting to

2511-552: The first appearance of the foraminiferan Paragloborotalia kugleri and with the base of magnetic polarity chronozone C6Cn.2n. Oligocene faunal stages from youngest to oldest are: During the Oligocene Epoch, the continents continued to drift toward their present positions. Antarctica became more isolated as deep ocean channels were established between Antarctica and Australia and South America . Australia had been very slowly rifting away from West Antarctica since

2604-474: The marabou and Abdim's stork will frequently be found foraging in open grasslands of savannah. Preferred habitats include flooded grasslands, light woodland, marshes and paddyfields, wet meadows , river backwaters and ponds. Many species will select shallow pools, particularly when lakes or rivers are drying out, as they concentrate prey and make it harder for prey to escape, or when monsoonal rainfall increases water depth of larger waterbodies. Some species like

2697-578: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current. There is some evidence that it occurred much earlier, during the early Eocene. The other major oceanic gateway opening during this time was the Tasman, or Tasmanian, depending on the paper, gateway between Australia and Antarctica. The time frame for this opening is less disputed than the Drake Passage and is largely considered to have occurred around 34 Ma. As

2790-689: The Arctic may have influenced this oceanic cooling, though the extent of this influence is still a matter of some significant dispute. The opening and closing of ocean gateways: the opening of the Drake Passage ; the opening of the Tasmanian Gateway and the closing of the Tethys seaway; along with the final formation of the Greenland – Iceland – Faroes Ridge; played vital parts in reshaping oceanic currents during

2883-528: The Dong Ho Formation of Oligocene age shows that the Oligocene flora of what is now Vietnam was very similar to its present flora. Kelps make their first appearance in the fossil record during the earliest Oligocene. Most extant mammal families had appeared by the end of the Oligocene. These included primitive three-toed horses, rhinoceroses, camels, deer, and peccaries. Carnivores such as dogs , nimravids , bears, weasels, and raccoons began to replace

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2976-402: The Drake Passage may also have been in place by the end of the early Oligocene. This may have been interrupted by a temporary constriction of the Drake Passage from sometime in the middle to late Oligocene (29 to 22 mya) to the middle Miocene (15 mya). The reorganization of the oceanic tectonic plates of the northeastern Pacific, which had begun in the Paleocene, culminated with the arrival of

3069-512: The Drake Passage opened and enabled the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), which would have kept the cold waters of Antarctica circulating around that continent and strengthened the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (ABW). With the cold water concentrated around Antarctica, sea surface temperatures and, consequently, continental temperatures would have dropped. The onset of Antarctic glaciation occurred during

3162-928: The East African large igneous province , which also initiated rifting along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden . The Alps were rapidly rising in Europe as the African Plate continued to push north into the Eurasian Plate , isolating the remnants of the Tethys Sea . Sea levels were lower in the Oligocene than in the early Eocene, exposing large coastal plains in Europe and the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast of North America. The Obik Sea , which had separated Europe from Asia, retreated early in

3255-555: The Eocene-Oligocene transition are not yet fully understood. The timing is wrong for this to be caused either by known impact events or by the volcanic activity on the Ethiopean Plateau. Two other possible drivers of climate change, not mutually exclusive, have been proposed. The first is thermal isolation of the continent of Antarctica by development of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current . Deep sea cores from south of New Zealand suggest that cold deep-sea currents were present by

3348-655: The Grande Coupure. The lowering of sea levels closed the Turgai Strait across the Obik Sea, which had previously separated Asia from Europe. This allowed Asian mammals, such as rhinoceroses and ruminants , to enter Europe and drive endemic species to extinction. Lesser faunal turnovers occurred simultaneously with the Oi2 event and towards the end of the Oligocene. There was significant diversification of mammals in Eurasia, including

3441-1623: The IUCN Red List. A Ciconia bone found in a rock shelter on the island of Réunion was probably of a bird taken there as food by early settlers; no known account mentions the presence of storks on the Mascarene Islands . The following phylogeny is recognized by the International Ornithological Congress, partially based on de Sousa et al (2023): African openbill ( Anastomus lamelligerus ) Asian openbill (Anastomus oscitans ) Marabou stork ( Leptoptilos crumenifer ) Lesser adjutant ( Leptoptilos javanicus ) Greater adjutant ( Leptoptilos dubius ) Wood stork ( Mycteria americana ) Yellow-billed stork ( Mycteria ibis ) Painted stork ( Mycteria leucocephala ) Milky stork ( Mycteria cinerea ) Jabiru ( Jabiru mycteria ) Saddle-billed stork ( Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis ) Black-necked stork ( Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus ) Abdim's stork ( Ciconia abdimii ) Asian woolly-necked stork ( Ciconia episcopus ) Storm's stork ( Ciconia stormi ) Black stork ( Ciconia nigra ) Maguari stork ( Ciconia maguari ) African woolly-necked stork ( Ciconia microscelis ) White stork ( Ciconia ciconia ) Oriental stork ( Ciconia boyciana ) The fossil genera Eociconia (Middle Eocene of China) and Ciconiopsis (Deseado Early Oligocene of Patagonia, Argentina) are often tentatively placed with this family. A "ciconiiform" fossil fragment from

3534-499: The Jurassic, but the exact timing of the establishment of ocean channels between the two continents remains uncertain. However, one estimate is that a deep channel was in place between the two continents by the end of the early Oligocene. The timing of the formation of the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica is also uncertain, with estimates ranging from 49 to 17 mya (early Eocene to Miocene), but oceanic circulation through

3627-717: The Murray and Mendocino Fracture Zones at the North American subduction zone in the Oligocene. This initiated strike-slip movement along the San Andreas Fault and extensional tectonics in the Basin and Range province , ended volcanism south of the Cascades, and produced clockwise rotation of many western North American terranes. The Rocky Mountains were at their peak. A new volcanic arc was established in western North America, far inland from

3720-501: The New World and Old World monkeys. The South American continent was home to animals such as pyrotheres and astrapotheres , as well as litopterns and notoungulates . Sebecosuchians , terror birds , and carnivorous metatheres , like the borhyaenids remained the dominant predators. Africa was also relatively isolated and retained its endemic fauna. These included mastodonts, hyraxes, arsinoitheres, and other archaic forms. Egypt in

3813-702: The Norwegian-Greenland Sea indicate a drop in winter temperatures at high latitudes of about 5 °C (9.0 °F) just prior to the Oi1 event. Borehole dating from the Southeast Faroes drift indicates that deep-ocean circulation from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic Ocean began in the early Oligocene. The best terrestrial record of Oligocene climate comes from North America, where temperatures dropped by 7 to 11 °C (13 to 20 °F) in

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3906-594: The Norwegian-Greenland Sea indicated that glaciers had appeared in Greenland by the start of the Oligocene. Continental ice sheets in Antarctica reached sea level during the transition. Glacially rafted debris of early Oligocene age in the Weddell Sea and Kerguelen Plateau , in combination with Oi1 isotope shift, provides unambiguous evidence of a continental ice sheet on Antarctica by the early Oligocene. The causes of

3999-401: The Oligocene exists mostly in isotopic proxies. Patterns of extinction and patterns of species migration can also be studied to gain insight into ocean conditions. For a while, it was thought that the glaciation of Antarctica may have significantly contributed to the cooling of the ocean, however, recent evidence tends to deny this. Isotopic evidence suggests that during the early Oligocene,

4092-507: The Oligocene was an environment of lush forested deltas. Nevertheless, the Early Oligocene saw a major reduction in the diversity of many Afro-Arabian mammal clades, including hyaenodonts, primates, and hystricognath and anomaluroid rodents. During the Oligocene, the Tethyan marine biodiversity hotspot collapsed as the Tethys Ocean contracted. The seas around Southeast Asia and Australia became

4185-516: The Oligocene, creating a persistent land connection between the continents. The Paratethys Sea stretched from what is now the Balkan Peninsula across Central Asia to the Tian Shan region of what is now Xinjiang . There appears to have been a land bridge in the early Oligocene between North America and Europe, since the faunas of the two regions are very similar. However, towards the end of

4278-492: The Oligocene, there was a brief marine incursion in Europe. The rise of the Himalayas during the Oligocene remains poorly understood. One recent hypothesis is that a separate microcontinent collided with south Asia in the early Eocene, and India itself did not collide with south Asia until the end of the Oligocene. The Tibetan Plateau may have reached nearly its present elevation by the late Oligocene. The Andes first became

4371-516: The Oligocene. The Oligocene saw the emergence of parrotfishes, as the centre of marine biodiversity shifted from the Central Tethys eastward into the Indo-Pacific. The fossil record of marine mammals is a little spotty during this time, and not as well known as the Eocene or Miocene, but some fossils have been found. The baleen whales and toothed whales had just appeared, and their ancestors,

4464-579: The Oligocene. As the continents shifted to a more modern configuration, so too did ocean circulation. The Drake Passage is located between South America and Antarctica . Once the Tasmanian Gateway between Australia and Antarctica opened, all that kept Antarctica from being completely isolated by the Southern Ocean was its connection to South America. As the South American continent moved north,

4557-669: The Straits of Gibraltar or east across the Bosphorus and through Israel and the Sinai. Studies of young birds denied the chance to travel with others of their species have shown that these routes are at least partially learnt, rather than being innate as they are in passerine migrants. Migrating black storks are split between those that make stopovers on the migration between Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa, and those that do not. The Abdim's stork

4650-596: The Touro Passo Formation found at Arroio Touro Passo ( Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil ) might be of the living wood stork M. americana ; it is at most of Late Pleistocene age, a few 10,000s of years. Storks range in size from the marabou, which stands 152 cm (60 in) tall and can weigh 8.9 kg ( 19 + 1 ⁄ 2  lb), to the Abdim's stork, which is only 75 cm (30 in) high and weighs only 1.3 kg ( 2 + 3 ⁄ 4  lb). Their shape

4743-474: The absence of persecution several stork species breed close to people, and species such as the marabou, greater adjutant, and white stork feed at landfill sites. Storks vary in their tendency towards migration. Temperate species like the white stork, black stork and Oriental stork undertake long annual migrations in the winter. The routes taken by these species have developed to avoid long distance travel across water, and from Europe this usually means flying across

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4836-538: The atmosphere, contributing to global cooling. The gradual separation of the clump of continental crust and the deepening of the tectonic ridge in the North Atlantic that would become Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands helped to increase the deep water flow in that area. More information about the evolution of North Atlantic Deep Water will be given a few sections down. Evidence for ocean-wide cooling during

4929-432: The authority of Alexander of Myndus , noted in his De natura animalium (book 3, chapter 23) that aged storks flew away to oceanic islands where they were transformed into humans as a reward for their piety towards their parents. Storks were also thought to care for their aged parents, feeding them and even transporting them, and children's books depicted them as a model of filial values. A Greek law called Pelargonia , from

5022-425: The burrow with the bill and even the whole head into the mud. The characteristic feeding method involves standing or walking in shallow water and holding the bill submerged in the water. When contact is made with prey the bill reflexively snaps shut in 25 milliseconds, one of the fastest reactions known in any vertebrate. The reaction is able to distinguish between prey items and inanimate objects like branches, although

5115-473: The closely related herons , spoonbills and ibises ; they also lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Bill-clattering is an important mode of communication at the nest. Many species are migratory . Most storks eat frogs , fish , insects , earthworms , small birds and small mammals . There are 20 living species of storks in six genera . Various terms are used to refer to groups of storks, two frequently used ones being

5208-708: The coast, reaching from central Mexico through the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field to the San Juan volcanic field , then through Utah and Nevada to the ancestral Northern Cascades. Huge ash deposits from these volcanoes created the White River and Arikaree Groups of the High Plains, with their excellent fossil beds. Between 31 and 26 mya, the Ethiopia-Yemen Continental Flood Basalts were emplaced by

5301-603: The deliverers of newborn humans. All 20 stork species have been assessed by the IUCN and carry a confident Red List status. However, the assessment for several species were based on incorrect assumptions and a general absence of sound information on stork habits. The word "stork " was first used in its current sense by at least the 12th century in Middle English . It is derived from the Old English word "storc", which itself comes from

5394-446: The difficulty may be that there were strong regional variations in the response to climate shifts. Evidence of a relatively warm Oligocene suggests an enigmatic climate state, neither hothouse nor icehouse. The late Oligocene (26.5 to 24 mya) likely saw a warming trend in spite of low pCO2 levels, though this appears to vary by region. However, Antarctica remained heavily glaciated during this warming period. The late Oligocene warming

5487-417: The earliest Oligocene. This change is seen from Alaska to the Gulf Coast. Upper Eocene paleosols reflect annual precipitation of over a meter of rain, but early Oligocene precipitation was less than half this. In central North America, the cooling was by 8.2 ± 3.1 °C over a period of 400,000 years, though there is little indication of significant increase in aridity during this interval. Ice-rafted debris in

5580-487: The early Oligocene, and the effect of the Drake Passage opening on this glaciation has been the subject of much research. However, some controversy still exists as to the exact timing of the passage opening, whether it occurred at the start of the Oligocene or nearer the end. Even so, many theories agree that at the Eocene/Oligocene (E/O) boundary, a yet shallow flow existed between South America and Antarctica, permitting

5673-496: The early Oligocene. However, the timing of this event remains controversial. The other possibility, for which there is considerable evidence, is a drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels ( pCO2 ) during the transition. The pCO2 is estimated to have dropped just before the transition, to 760 ppm at the peak of ice sheet growth, then rebounded slightly before resuming a more gradual fall. Climate modeling suggests that glaciation of Antarctica took place only when pCO2 dropped below

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5766-432: The end of the epoch from an otter -like ancestor. The Oligocene sees the beginnings of modern ocean circulation, with tectonic shifts causing the opening and closing of ocean gateways. Cooling of the oceans had already commenced by the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, and they continued to cool as the Oligocene progressed. The formation of permanent Antarctic ice sheets during the early Oligocene and possible glacial activity in

5859-425: The endemic rodent and marsupial families. By contrast, the Oligocene–Miocene boundary is not set at an easily identified worldwide event but rather at regional boundaries between the warmer late Oligocene and the relatively cooler Miocene. The lower boundary of the Oligocene (its Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point or GSSP) is placed at the last appearance of the foraminiferan genus Hantkenina in

5952-417: The exact mechanism is unknown. Openbills are specialists in freshwater molluscs, particularly apple snails. They feed in small groups, and sometimes African openbills ride on the backs of hippos while foraging. Having caught a snail it will return to land or at least to the shallows to eat it. The fine tip of the bill of the openbills is used to open the snail, and the saliva has a narcotic effect, which causes

6045-551: The extralimital families Scopidae (hamerkop) and Balaenicipitidae (shoebill) of Africa. Elsewhere in the world, the word refers to what North Americans call a " shorebird ", various families of the order Charadriiformes . In the past all of these families were classified in the order Ciconiiformes based on overall similarity in anatomy and ecology, as well as some molecular data. However recent genomic studies have found that this group to be polyphyletic , with flamingos being more closely related to grebes while ibises, herons,

6138-536: The gateway widened, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current strengthened. The Tethys Seaway was not a gateway, but rather a sea in its own right. Its closing during the Oligocene had significant impact on both ocean circulation and climate. The collisions of the African plate with the European plate and of the Indian subcontinent with the Asian plate, cut off the Tethys Seaway that had provided a low-latitude ocean circulation. The closure of Tethys built some new mountains (the Zagros range) and drew down more carbon dioxide from

6231-532: The genera. The shape of the bills is linked to the diet of the different species. The large bills of the Ciconia storks are the least specialized. Larger are the massive and slightly upturned bills of the Ephippiorhynchus and the jabiru. These have evolved to hunt for fish in shallow water. Larger still are the massive daggers of the two adjutants and marabou ( Leptoptilos ), which are used to feed on carrion and in defense against other scavengers, as well as for taking other prey. The long, ibis-like downcurved bills of

6324-479: The giant indricotheres , that grew up to 6 meters (20 ft) at the shoulder and weighed up to 20 tons. Paraceratherium was one of the largest land mammals ever to walk the Earth. However, the indricotheres were an exception to a general tendency for Oligocene mammals to be much smaller than their Eocene counterparts. The earliest deer, giraffes, pigs, and cattle appeared in the mid-Oligocene in Eurasia. The first felid , Proailurus , originated in Asia during

6417-431: The hamerkop and the shoebill are more closely related to pelicans . As a result of these changes flamingos are placed in their own order Phoenicopteriformes and Ciconiiformes are solely restricted to the storks. The rest of the waders have been reclassified into the order Pelecaniformes . In some field guides, the families Gruidae (cranes) and Aramidae (limpkin) are also considered to be waders too. However unlike

6510-453: The hypothesised Proto-Germanic * stork and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European *sr̥ǵos . The name refers to the rigid posture of storks, a meaning reflected in the related word stark , which is derived from the Old English "stearc". Several species of storks are known by other common names. The jabiru is named after the Tupí-Guarani words meaning "that which has" and "swollen", referring to its thickset neck. The marabou stork

6603-456: The late Oligocene and spread to Europe. There was only limited migration between Asia and North America. The cooling of central North America at the Eocene-Oligocene transition resulted in a large turnover of gastropods, amphibians, and reptiles. Mammals were much less affected. Crocodilians and pond turtles replaced by dry land tortoises. Molluscs shifted to more drought-tolerant forms. The White River Fauna of central North America inhabited

6696-769: The main source of deep water was the North Pacific and the Southern Ocean . As the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge sank and thereby connected the Norwegian–Greenland sea with the Atlantic Ocean, the deep water of the North Atlantic began to come into play as well. Computer models suggest that once this occurred, a more modern in appearance thermo-haline circulation started. Evidence for the early Oligocene onset of chilled North Atlantic deep water lies in

6789-565: The modern folk culture of many Slavic countries, in the simplified child story that "storks bring children into the world". Wading bird Birders in Canada and the United States refer to several families of long-legged wading birds in semi- aquatic ecosystems as waders . These include the families Phoenicopteridae (flamingos) , Ciconiidae (storks) , Threskiornithidae (ibises and spoonbills) , Ardeidae (herons, egrets, and bitterns) , and

6882-538: The most powerful animals and were used to represent the ba , the Ancient Egyptian conception of the soul, during the Old Kingdom . Bennu , an Egyptian deity that was later the inspiration for the phoenix , may also have been inspired by a stork, although it was more likely an ibis or heron. Greek and Roman mythology portrays storks as models of parental devotion. The 3rd century Roman writer Aelian , citing

6975-502: The new dominant hotspot of marine biodiversity. At sea, 97% of marine snail species, 89% of clams, and 50% of echinoderms of the Gulf Coast did not survive past the earliest Oligocene. New species evolved, but the overall diversity diminished. Cold-water mollusks migrated around the Pacific Rim from Alaska and Siberia. The marine animals of Oligocene oceans resembled today's fauna, such as the bivalves . Calcareous cirratulids appeared in

7068-566: The opening of the Drake Passage is around 30 Ma. One of the possible issues with this timing was the continental debris cluttering up the seaway between the two plates in question. This debris, along with what is known as the Shackleton Fracture Zone , has been shown in a recent study to be fairly young, only about 8 million years old. The study concludes that the Drake Passage would be free to allow significant deep water flow by around 31 Ma. This would have facilitated an earlier onset of

7161-468: The opening of the Drake Passage is during the early Miocene. Despite the shallow flow between South America and Antarctica, there was not enough of a deep water opening to allow for significant flow to create a true Antarctic Circumpolar Current. If the opening occurred as late as hypothesized, then the Antarctic Circumpolar Current could not have had much of an effect on early Oligocene cooling, as it would not have existed. The earliest hypothesized time for

7254-517: The period from 33.8 to 33.5 mya. By the end of the transition, sea levels had dropped by 105 meters (344 ft), and ice sheets were 25% greater in extent than in the modern world. The effects of the transition can be seen in the geological record at many locations around the world. Ice volumes rose as temperature and sea levels dropped. Playa lakes of the Tibetan Plateau disappeared at the transition, pointing to cooling and aridification of central Asia. Pollen and spore counts in marine sediments of

7347-568: The period, grass was not quite common enough for modern savannas . In North America, much of the dense forest was replaced by patchy scrubland with riparian forests. Subtropical species dominated with cashews and lychee trees present, and temperate woody plants such as roses , beeches , and pines were common. The legumes spread, while sedges and ferns continued their ascent. In Europe, floral assemblages became increasingly affected by strengthening seasonality as it related to wildfire activity. The Ha Long megafossil flora from

7440-623: The plains that were spreading as the Eocene rainforests receded. Brontotheres died out in the Earliest Oligocene, and creodonts died out outside Africa and the Middle East at the end of the period. Multituberculates , an ancient lineage of primitive mammals that originated back in the Jurassic , also became extinct in the Oligocene, aside from the gondwanatheres . The Eocene-Oligocene transition in Europe and Asia has been characterized as

7533-632: The poles, most of North America and large parts of Australia. The centres of stork diversity are in tropical Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with eight and six breeding species respectively. Just three species are present in the New World: wood stork , maguari stork and jabiru , which is the tallest flying bird of the Americas. Two species, white and black stork , reach Europe and western temperate Asia, while one species, Oriental stork , reaches temperate areas of eastern Asia, and one species, black-necked stork ,

7626-406: The previously mentioned families, cranes and the limpkin were never thought to be closely related to the heron-like birds and have always been classified as members of the order Gruiformes . This bird-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Oligocene The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of

7719-519: The rainforest habitat sought by Storm's stork in South East Asia. They generally avoid marine habitats, with the exception of the lesser adjutant , milky stork and wood stork , all of which forage in mangroves, lagoons and estuarine mudflats. A number of species, especially woolly-necked storks, black-necked storks, Asian openbills and lesser adjutant Storks in south Asia, have adapted to highly modified human habitats, for foraging and breeding. In

7812-417: The same species, but have little to do with one another. They also may nest solitarily, and the reasons why they choose to nest together or apart are not understood. Storks use trees in a variety of habitats to breed including forests, cities, farmlands, and large wetlands. Many ancient mythologies feature stories and legends involving storks. In Ancient Egypt , saddle-billed storks were seen as being amongst

7905-409: The snail to relax and simplifies the process of extraction. The other genera of storks are more generalised. Ciconia storks are very generalised in their diets, and some species including Abdim's stork and marabous will feed in large flocks on swarms of locusts and at wildfires. This is why white storks and Abdim's storks are known as "grasshopper birds". Ephippiorhynchus are carnivorous though have

7998-478: The start of an Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Stemming from the issue of when the opening of the Drake Passage took place, is the dispute over how great of an influence the opening of the Drake Passage had on the global climate. While early researchers concluded that the advent of the ACC was highly important, perhaps even the trigger, for Antarctic glaciation and subsequent global cooling, other studies have suggested that

8091-531: The stork on the window sill. Subsequently, the folklore has spread around the world to the Philippines and countries in South America . Birthmarks on the back of the head of newborn babies, nevus flammeus nuchae , are sometimes referred to as stork-bite. In Slavic mythology and pagan religion , storks were thought to carry unborn souls from Vyraj to Earth in spring and summer. This belief still persists in

8184-537: The time of the Oi2 oxygen isotope shift. This led to the largest drop of sea level in past 100 million years, by about 75 meters (246 ft). This is reflected in a mid-Oligocene incision of continental shelves and unconformities in marine rocks around the world. Some evidence suggests that the climate remained warm at high latitudes even as ice sheets experienced cyclical growth and retreat in response to orbital forcing and other climate drivers. Other evidence indicates significant cooling at high latitudes. Part of

8277-515: The tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major changes during the Oligocene included a global expansion of grasslands , and a regression of tropical broad leaf forests to the equatorial belt . The start of the Oligocene is marked by a notable extinction event called the Grande Coupure ; it featured the replacement of European fauna with Asian fauna , except for

8370-451: The woolly-necked storks and lesser adjutant storks have adapted to changing crops of tropical agricultural landscapes that enables them to remain resident despite the transformations brought about by seasonal crops. In South Africa, the woolly-necked storks have adapted to artificial feeding and now largely nest on trees in gardens with swimming pools. Less typical habitats include the dense temperate forests used by European black storks , or

8463-401: The world as tropical and sub- tropical forests were replaced by temperate deciduous forests . Open plains and deserts became more common and grasses expanded from their water-bank habitat in the Eocene moving out into open tracts. The decline in pCO2 favored C4 photosynthesis , which is found only in angiosperms and is particularly characteristic of grasses. However, even at the end of

8556-414: The δ O signature is too strong for glaciation to be the main trigger for cooling. Through study of Pacific Ocean sediments, other researchers have shown that the transition from warm Eocene ocean temperatures to cool Oligocene ocean temperatures took only 300,000 years, which strongly implies that feedbacks and factors other than the ACC were integral to the rapid cooling. The latest hypothesized time for

8649-583: Was very warm, with crocodilians and temperate plants thriving north of the Arctic Circle . The cooling trend that began in the middle Eocene continued into the Oligocene, bringing both poles well below freezing for the first time in the Phanerozoic . The cooling climate, together with the opening of some land bridges and the closing of others, led to a profound reorganization of the biosphere and loss of taxonomic diversity. Land animals and marine organisms reached

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