The Story of Birds

Steve Brusatte takes us on an eye-opening tour into the amazing world of birds, from their origins as the living descendants of dinosaurs to their remarkable cognitive and navigational skills. A thrilling addition to his hugely successful earlier books, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals – Venki Ramakrishnan, Nobel Prize-winning author of Why We DieAn authoritative and endlessly illuminating journey through the evolution of birds – from their dinosaur roots in the Triassic to the hummingbird at your feeder. As one of the world’s top paleontologists, as well as one of the finest science communicators working today, no one is better positioned to tell this epic and surprising story than Steve Brusatte. An instant classic. Anyone interested in the story of life on Earth needs this on their bookshelf – Peter Brannen, author of The Story of Co2 is the Story of EverythingBrusatte weaves cutting-edge science and vivid storytelling to give us a breathtaking account of one of evolution’s greatest survivors – Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner FishBrimming with surprises, The Story of Birds reveals evolution as a restless tinkerer and birds as its most radical experiment … The birds around us [are] living records of a history far stranger, tougher, and more inventive than we assume. Clear, incisive, and quietly surprising, The Story of Birds makes it impossible to see the natural world the same way ever again – Hakeem Oluseyi, author of A Quantum LifeA brilliant history of how birds evolved, with an astonishing insight on every page – Stephen Moss, author of Ten Birds That Changed the WorldHold the front page – dinosaurs did NOT go extinct! They are all around us, and there are more of them than ever. They tweet! They squawk! They trill! They coo! They cluck! They shriek! Yes, they are the birds, and in The Story of Birds Steve Brusatte tells their amazing story with enthusiasm and brio – Henry Gee, author of the award-winning A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth

Professor Steve Brusatte is a palaeontologist on the faculty of the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Steve is widely recognized as one of the leading palaeontologists of his generation. Among his particular research interests are the evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and birds and the rise of placental mammals, and he is a noted specialist on the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of the carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor. His book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs was a Sunday Times bestseller, and he was the science consultant for Jurassic World 3.