SCIENCE LAB SCARCE : BACKFLIPS FOR LOVE

' Dietary shift put this bird on a lifelong sugar high.' : Manakin often appear only in blurs of blue or red as they flit along the rainforest floors of South and Central America.

The males, known for their elaborate courtship rituals snap their wings, spin around their rivals and even do backflips to woo potential partners.

Where do they get their energy?

Previous studies have shown that manakins possess fast-moving muscles and hearts that can manage short bursts of intense activity.

Now, genetic research suggests that these evolutionary adaptations were made possible by an important dietary change : Before they could dance, manakins had to be able to detect and digest sugary fruits.

'' This is such a wonderful aspect of the study,'' said Maude Baldwin, an evolutionary biologist in Germany and an author of the study, which appeared in Current Biology.

'' We were able to dig into the evolutionary history of their relationships with fruit.''

The first bird genome was sequenced more than 20 years ago, gathered from a wild species of chicken known as red junglefowl.

The breakthrough gave researchers their first glimpse of avian genes and what they reveal about how birds experience the world.

The Publishing continues to Part [ 2 ]. !WOW! thanks K.R. Callaway.