November 2016: Bird Paradoxes

Hey my bird friends, and welcome back to Caitlin’s Corner! This month I will be doing things a bit differently—or the same—because I will be introducing you to some mind-boggling paradoxes. A paradox is a scenario that sounds totally reasonable on one end, but ends up with an outcome that does not make sense or contradicts itself. So, get ready to think, because here are 3 bird paradoxes that will blow your mind:

1. The Raven Paradox:

a. Carl Gustav Hempel sited this problem, so it is also known as Hempel’s paradox or Hempel’s ravens. In the 1940s, he explained that all ravens are black (which we birders know to be true). So, based on logic, it is concluded that everything that is not black is not a raven. When everything that is not black is not a raven is true, the idea that ravens are black is true, and vice versa. This equaling of statements is known as a logical equivalence.

b. Evidence to help prove that these statements do equal each other is “my pet raven is black,” proving that all ravens are black. But look at it this way: if you say, “this thing that is green (so not black) that I hold in my hand is an apple (so it cannot be a raven) proves that everything that is not black is not a raven.

c. In conclusion, the green apple must be evidence showing that yes, all ravens are black. Think about that…it doesn’t quite make much sense, right? I don’t usually pick up an apple at the supermarket and say to myself “ohhh this is why every raven is black!” That’s why it is a paradox, because looking at a green apple shows that information can be received about ravens, which just doesn’t happen.

d. Here is another example that may help you understand a bit better. All ducks generally quack. I pick up and look at a flower. It doesn’t quack and isn’t a duck, so it proves that all ducks quack, which seems pretty ridiculous to conclude.

2. The Chicken or the Egg Paradox:

a. You are probably somewhat familiar with this paradox, because it is one of the most famous ones in history. People have tried to solve and pick it apart since Aristotle (who lived from 384-322 BC!).

b. The question “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” is one that asks how the life of an animal begins. An egg with the first chicken to start the beginning of chickens could not be possible without the bird laying the egg.

c. Team chicken has some answers to the problem. One explanation is that something similar to a chicken that wasn’t quite one yet turned into a chicken. Or, the chicken was created from nothing, which could really only can be explained by a miracle. But the most convincing argument here is the chicken egg is made out of a protein that can only be made by a chicken.

d. Team egg also has some answers to the problem as well. Kind of like the first chicken explanation, the egg could have ended up transforming into a totally different thing, which doesn’t make much sense. Probably the most logical explanation is that the egg was created first through a mutation of an egg that didn’t come from a chicken. A mutation is easier to believe because humans have experienced some too, such as red hair.

e. So, which are you? Team chicken or team egg? It all really depends on the perspective of the egg being the first chicken or the chicken itself once it has hatched. Many people have answered the chicken came first, but there are still reliable sources that claim the egg did. Though many have speculated and developed convincing proofs, there is not really a way to know for sure. For a better visual and more information on this paradox, above is a video you can watch that presents the solution of how the egg came first.

3. Temporal Paradox:

a. In 1994, a paleornithologist (someone who studies the evolution of birds) named Alan Feduccia came up with this time problem dealing with bird relationships.

b. The paradox starts out with a generally accept idea that birds evolved from bird-like dinosaurs. The closest ones are from the Cretaceous time period, but by then, the birds that are most like todays have already grown and evolved. Shouldn’t the ancestors of birds be older than these birds? The phrase goes “you can’t be your own grandmother.”

c. Many researches have come to the conclusion that the temporal paradox is not really a thing. There are many other dinosaurs that lived further in the past that can be ancestors of birds. Another explanation is that birds might have not evolved from dinosaurs in the first place.

d. There is also another temporal paradox not involving birds that deals with time travel problems with loops and the popular paradox called the grandfather paradox (if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, would you cease to exist? But then how you would be able to kill your grandfather if you don’t exist?).

I hope you enjoyed this month’s article on Caitlin’s Corner! If paradoxes in general, bird ones or not, really fascinate you, here is a really cool video with a few more paradoxes that you can discover. Make sure you share these with your friends and family to blow their minds as well! Goodbye, and I will see you next month on Caitlin’s Corner!