Evolution and Adaptation of the Owl Over

Evolution and Adaptation of the Owl Over the years studies have endured to study the owl in its natural environment and in the controlled environment. Much has been found about owls but more can still be learnt. Owls are said to belong to the Aves as their phylogenetic and two distinct families of owls have been pointed out, the Barn owls and the other types of owl.

There are 17 known species of barn owls throughout the world and they belong to the family Tytonidae and the other family of Strigidae comprise of the other 161 species that are known (Carolina Biological Supply Company, 2011). The oldest known fossils for the owl date back to 38-54 million years ago and were from Miocene. Going by the evidence collected from the fossils, the ancient owls evolved into the two families of owl in the modern world.

For the Barn Owl, it is estimated that its oldest specie dates back to 24 million years ago. The giant Barn owls are found to have once been thriving in the Mediterranean region and the Caribbean area between 10,000 -- 30,000 years ago. The giant Barn owl, also referred to as Ornimegalonyx are said to have been almost 3 times larger than the modern Barn owl and almost twice as big as the modern Great Horned owl.

Ornimegalonyx is said to have preyed on animals such as the giant rodents that are almost four feet long. Generally there are 134 known species of owl in the world with the largest of them all being the Eurasian Eagle Owl and the smallest being Elf Owl. A significant two thirds of all the owls are nocturnal with the rest being diurnal and widely solitary in their life. Most owls hunt small mammals, other birds, insects and some hunt fish.

They are found in almost all parts of the universe except in Greenland and the Antarctica. Since the owl is a predator and has much of its life active at night, there are several adaptations that is has developed over the years to enable it to be a good hunter and for its survival, these adaptations are in form of the vision, hearing, flight and the mode of flight.

Vision; the owl has its eyes located at the front of the head in a shallow dish like depression to enable it to collect the maximum amount of light emanating from the target. They are able to rotate their head at 270 degrees hence giving it the wider view spectrum. The owl also has disproportionate large eyes in comparison to their skull relative to other birds as well as the eyes being tubular in shape. Due to this tubular shape of the eyes, they.