• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » From Teeth to Beaks

From Teeth to Beaks

December 15, 2014
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/141215_sciup_teeth.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Archaeopteryx_lithographica_by_durbed
Archaeopteryx had teeth, but modern birds do not. (durbed/Wikipedia)

How the bird lost its teeth. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Bird beaks come in all shapes and sizes. The long, thin hummingbird’s beak retrieves nectar deep from within flowers; the thick lower bill of a flamingo filters food like a baleen whale; and the powerful, curved beak of a parrot cracks open seeds. Amid all this diversity, it’s hard to imagine that birds once had teeth rather than beaks. In fact, in the journal Science, Mark Spring at the University of California, Riverside and his colleagues report that the genes for bird teeth are still in their DNA, but were inactivated by a series of mutations as beaks evolved.

MARK SPRINGER (University of California, Riverside):

If teeth are lost, we would expect the tooth-related genes to acculuate mutations and then they become non-functional. Because if a gene is no longer needed, it’s no longer maintained by natural selection.

HIRSHON:

Springer says birds lost their front teeth first, starting around 100 million years ago, followed by the teeth at the back of their mouths. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Genetics & Evolution, Paleontology & Dinosaurs
Previous Post:Senescent Cells
Next Post:Ocean Plastics

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Cat Video
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • NASA
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Image of computer screen depicting an orange cat with a variety of alphanumeric scientific data superimposed on the the screen.
Spotted skunk performing handstand to threaten predators

Copyright © 2025 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos