Cute kittens may be an internet staple, but a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology is shifting the spotlight (if only briefly) to owlets. Among other things, the study shows that baby owls sleep a lot like human babies.
The research also reveals a curious link between changing sleep patterns in the baby birds and a gene involved in producing melanin-containing spots on the birds' feathers--a finding that suggests that sleep-related processes in the brain are linked to melanism in adult owls and in other animals.
Melanin is a naturally occurring pigment. Melanism, the development of dark skin or appendages, is considered the opposite of albinism.
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