来源：百度文库 编辑：九乡新闻网 时间：2024/04/27 19:34:40
Contrary to popular belief, ostriches don't sleep with their heads in the sand. In fact, to all appearances, they never sleep at all: their eyes stay open, although they appear to doze off from time to time. To learn more about the sleep patterns of this unusual bird, researchers captured six ostriches in South Africa and measured their brain wave patterns with data loggers while they slept They expected the brain waves to look like those of other birds and mammals, which cycle between two patterns: deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM). When the loggers showed that the ostriches were in deep sleep, the birds looked entirely alert. But when they entered another sleep cycle, their heads started to droop. This second brainwave pattern wasn't classic REM, but a unique hybrid of REM and deep sleep patterns, the researchers report this week in PLoS ONE. The only other animal to show this pattern is the platypus, a member of an ancient group of egg-laying mammals known as monotremes. As ostriches are an ancient type of bird, this similarity suggests that the separation between REM and deep sleep may have evolved recently in birds and mammals. One can only speculate on whether ostriches and platypuses have similar dreams, too.
和大家所想的不同，鸵鸟睡觉的时候根本不把脑袋放在沙子里。事实上，怎么看，他们都从来不睡觉！他们从来不闭眼睛，虽然它们偶尔看起来困倦的像瞌睡。为了更好的了解这种特殊的鸟类睡觉的形态，研究者们从南非抓了6只鸵鸟，然后用数据测量器测量了鸵鸟们睡觉时的脑电波。研究者们本来期待着看到鸵鸟的脑电波图像和其他正常鸟类和哺乳类动物相似，就是在两种样式：深度睡眠和快速眼动(REM)中循环的样子。当测量仪显示鸵鸟在深度睡眠中的时候，这些鸟却看起来非常警觉！当它们进入另一个睡眠循环的时候，反而开始耷拉脑袋。第二种脑电波也不是传统意义上的快速眼动，而是一种独特的快速眼动和深度睡眠结合的睡眠样式。研究者们把以上的结果发表在了本周的PLoS ONE上面。唯一一种同样显示出和鸵鸟类似的睡眠图样的动物是鸭嘴兽：一种古老的产蛋类哺乳动物——单孔目动物中的一员。因为鸵鸟本身是一种古老的鸟类，这个相似点暗示了快速眼动和深度睡眠之间的间隔在从鸟类到哺乳动物的过程中有很大的进化。我们只能推断也许鸵鸟和鸭嘴兽也许会做相似的梦吧。
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