Description - Dinosaurs of the Air by Gregory S. Paul
This text presents the most recent work of evolutionary scientist and dinosaur illustrator, Gregory Paul. It synthesizes the growing body of evidence which suggests that modern-day birds have evolved from theropod dinosaurs of prehistoric times. Paul argues provocatively for the idea that the ancestor-descendant relationship between the dinosaurs and birds can on occasion be reversed, and that many dinosaurs were secondarily flightless descendants of creatures we would regard as birds. The book also offers firsthand interpretations of major fossils; a balanced discussion of the ways we think flight may have evolved (comparing "ground up" and "trees down" scenarios); a close look at the famous urvogel Archaeopteryx, discussing what it can and cannot tell us about bird origins; and in-depth analyses of bird and theropod phylogenetics. Full of detail for the specialist but accessible to the intelligent lay reader, the book includes the author's own illustrations and a technical appendix which provides information, for example, on body mass/wing dimension relationships and avian/dinosaurian metabolics.
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