Living Dinosaurs The Evolutionary History of Modern Birds

The scope of this book ranges widely, from bio-molecular aspects of avian biology to details of the anatomy of dinosaurs. However, it is not just a simple compilation of current material. Its purpose is to help bridge a gap that has developed between those who study birds as fossils and those who study the living animals.Each chapter of this book puts current understanding in context with directions that research may take over the next few years. The first section of the book reviews the early ancestry of birds and the conditions under which they and their nearest relatives diversified in the Cretaceous. The second section is intended to provide ornithologists with an overview of the fossil record. It contrasts with the third section which focuses on the development of features that have contributed to the success of living forms. By bringing together such a wide range of topics in one volume, the reader will find this book an invaluable entr_e into less familiar topics and will gain an appreciation of the potential value of linkages among seemingly unrelated approaches to the study of avian evolution.

Gareth Dyke is a vertebrate palaeontologist who specialises in the evolution of birds and their flight. He has worked on birds of all ages, from the 140 million years old Archaeopteryx right through to the bones of living ducks and gamebirds. He has searched for fossils all over the world, but has a particular interest in the geology and palaeontology of Eastern Europe. He has worked in Ireland since 2002. Gary Kaiser worked as a field biologist in Canada's migratory bird program from 1968 until retirement in 1999. He specialized in the capture and tagging of birds, particularly seabirds but began to study avian evolution in 1995. He combined this new interest with knowledge gained from handling birds to write Inner Bird in 2007. He has also contributed to Birds of British Columbia and Seabirds of the Russian Far East.