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This book discusses in detail the evolution of birds from earlier dinosaurs. Even more interestingly though is its premise that as well as the fact that birds are dinosaurs it may also be that some non-avian dinosaurs could be seen as neoflightless birds. Examples of these "dino-birds" include deinonychosaurs, oviraptorosaurs, therizinosaurs and possibly also alvarezsaurs and ornithomimosaurs. Things like tyrannosaurs and ornitholestids are also considered as candidates for secondarily flightless dinosaurs, though the author admits neoflightlessness is far less likely in these groups.
I think the idea certain dinosaurs besides the birds may come from flying origins makes sense, especially in the context of how we know have some fairly good evidence for flight capabilities in a number of dinosaurs generally considered "non-avian" (most notably among the dromaeosaurs). Indeed, the line between birds and other dinosaurs is quite blurred.
The book is well researched and presents plenty of evidence to back up its arguments. It does a good job of shattering still existing misconceptions about birds having non-dinosaurian ancestry and shows how the main arguments now are not really whether or not birds came from dinosaurs, but rather how and when this occurred and whether or not flight evolved more than once among the dinosaurs.
As well as the interesting information of flight in birds and other dinosaurs, the book discusses other interesting issues as well. For example, there is one part where the book shows some of the problems with the notion that an asteroid alone caused the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, and shows how it is far more likely the asteroid was but a single contributing factor among many.
There are a few things in the book I disagree with. I do not think, as the author does, that gliding is a precursor to flight and think he dismisses non-gliding origins for flight a bit too hastily. Also, at one point the book claims pterosaurs were likely out-competed by birds. This idea has, however, been repeatedly discredited as there exists no correlation between bird success and pterosaur decline and pterosaurs in fact had a number of advantages over birds (e.g. more resilient wings with greater lift capabilities, and the ability to launch quadrupedally).
Overall though I am glad to have brought this book and found it an interesting and educational read.
- Hardcover: 472 pages
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press; First Edition edition (May 1, 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801867630
- ISBN-13: 978-0801867637
- Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 1.4 x 11 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 1 customer review
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,266,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #49 in Vertebrate Paleontology
- #283 in Biology of Dinosaurs
- #270 in Organic Evolution
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