Sura ya Tisa - Mbuni wa Serengeti

Chapter Nine - Ostriches of the Serengeti

Life first appeared on earth about 4 billion years ago, then hung about for a while before pulling itself together and becoming multicellular about two and a half billion years later. That was a seriously long time. In the Cambrian, only about 535 million years ago, true vertebrates evolved, not the pathetic false ones that had been about before that. About 400 million years ago, the first 4-legged creatures evolved on land, then dinosaurs followed about 100 million years later.

Dinosaurs went on to rule the land for a very very long time. They were incredibly successful. They were dominant over reptiles partly because they were warm-blooded. This gave them a huge advantage, but it was difficult to maintain. To this end, their scales elongated into hair-like structures, helping to insulate their skin, and carried on evolving to eventually become feathers. Some of these creatures learned how to glide, (mostly smaller ones as Tyrannosaurus rex would have found this slightly counter-productive) then some of these then went on to fly, becoming what we now call birds.

Some birds avoided the mass extinction when the asteroid hit 65 million years ago, probably because of their bills, which gave them the ability to eat seed, one of the few food sources to survive the extinction.

These birds went on to colonise the world, living in all extremes of temperature. Their varied forms today far outnumber those of mammals.

So much time, deep time, has gone into the evolution of these flying miracles.

And then... 

Ostriches.

Something seems to have gone very wrong...

Ostriches are unique in so many ways.

They are the largest living birds.

 Unlike all other birds, they pass their pee separate to their poo.

I bet you really wanted to know that.

They have excellent vision, sporting the largest eye of any land animal.

And they dance.

 Their dances are a weird ritual

 Their dance involves waving their otherwise useless wings about in a parody of a can-can girl

 This male is doing a John Travolta special

This is meant to attract a mate...

hmm. Risqué.

 and what they do with their necks will make you wince.

 They expose parts of their body

otherwise best kept covered.

So cover them up then!

 The females also dance when the males are around.

 although not many prizes are likely to be won.

 When the males and females get together... well...

Romance leads only one way...

 uh oh.

Let's leave these bizarre creatures, the peak of a very long evolutionary process, to their sunset romance...

There are other strange birds in Africa, as we shall see in the next amazing chapter:

Sura ya Kumi -  Ndege Wala Msoga wa Serengeti

Chapter Ten - The Flying Scavengers of the Serengeti