Ostrich and emu ancestor could fly, scientists discover

HOW did the ostrich cross the ocean?

- AFP

It may sound like a joke, but scientists have long been puzzled by how the family of birds that includes African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, New Zealand kiwis and South American rheas spread across the world -- given that none of them can fly.

However, a study recently published in the Royal Society's Biology Letters journal may have found the answer to this mystery: the family’s oldest-known ancestors were able to take wing.

The only currently living member of this bird family -- which is called palaeognaths -- capable of flight is the tinamous in Central and South America. But even then, the shy birds can only fly over short distances when they need to escape danger or clear obstacles. Given this ineptitude in the air, scientists have struggled to explain how palaeognaths became so far-flung.