The Rise of Birds: 225 Million Years of Evolution

By Sankar Chatterjee

The most comprehensive account of the origin of ancient and modern birds--the "living dinosaurs."

A small set of fossilized bones discovered almost thirty years ago led paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee on a lifelong quest to understand their place in our understanding of the history of life. They were clearly the bones of something unusual, a bird-like creature that lived long, long ago in the age of dinosaurs. He called it Protoavis, and the animal that owned these bones quickly became a contender for the title of "oldest known bird." In 1997, Chatterjee published his findings in the first edition of The Rise of Birds.

Since then Chatterjee and his colleagues have searched the world for more transitional bird fossils. And they have found them. This second edition of The Rise of Birds brings together a treasure trove of fossils that tell us far more about the evolution of birds than we once dreamed possible.

With no blind allegiance to what he once thought he knew, Chatterjee devours the new evidence and lays out the most compelling version of the birth and evolution of the avian form ever attempted. He takes us from Texas to Spain, China, Mongolia, Madagascar, Australia, Antarctica, and Argentina. He shows how, in the "Cretaceous Pompeii" of China, he was able to reconstruct the origin and evolution of flight of early birds from the feathered dinosaurs that lay among thousands of other amazing fossils.

Chatterjee takes us to where long-hidden bird fossils dwell. His compelling, occasionally controversial, revelations--accompanied by spectacular illustrations--are a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the evolution of "the feathered dinosaurs," from vertebrate paleontologists and ornithologists to naturalists and birders.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1421415909
• ISBN13: 9781421415901
• Release Date: April 2015
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 8.4" x 11.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The Rise of Birds: 225 Million Years of Evolution

The Rise of Birds: 225 Million years of Evolution written by Sankar Chatterjee and illustrated by Michael W. Nickell is an excellent book about the rise of birds and has some very interesting comparative anatomy as Chatterjee compares the Protoavis "first bird" found by Chatterjee in Texas in 1983, with other fossil remains and comes to his own conclusions as to how flight began for birds.As we read on in the book, we find that the fossilzed evidence of the Mesozoic birds is still quite sketchy and there exist some remarkable holes to be filled in from the fossil record. This book is becoming a little dated as there has been some new evidence in the fossil record coming out of China that has been remarkable and isn't covered in the book as the publishing date preceeds that finding of this new fossil evidence.Protoavis has been looked upon by scientists in the past and conclusions to where it fit in in the fossil record are just now coming to light and makes for interesting reading. Scientists have been ignoring Protoavis until Chatterjee and his published analysis giving Protoavis a closer look.Dinosaurs are so popular and we have a tendency to often over look or neglect their bird relatives... this link is becoming stronger and stronger as more fossil finds are linking the dinosaurs to birds... making birds the true living dinosaurs that demand respect."The Rise of Birds: 225 Million Years of Evolution" is a very well illustrated text making for easy comparative anatomic analysis. The detail is comprehensive and we read about a modern phylogenetic context. Also, throughout the text Chatterjee fascinates the reader with a wealth of details from the colorful history of birds from past to present.Chatterjee goes into detail about how flight emerged, whether from the ground up or from the trees to the ground as a gliding type of flight. This argument is detailed with the dromaeosaurs, as an intelligent theopod, was an arboreal tree climber with swivel wrist joints and a stiff tail.The reader needs a little science background to get the maximum effect from the book, but it is wriiten in a way that a broad range of people can get some benefit reading this book, from vertebrate paleontologist, ornithologists, and amateur naturalists such as birders. This book would qualify as a book on Paleobiology, but very readable with ample detail in explaining the finer points."The Rise of Birds: 225 Million Years of Evolution" will captivate you and you will learn some of the finer points in flight and evolution, as the book covers fossil evidence from Europe to China and Latin America making this book a very comprehensive starting source... albeit a dated source. As this book covers some of the greatest events in avian development we see that birds are linked to their Triassic cousins, their flight refinement and global diversification. I gave this book a solid five stars for a intelligent and captivating and educational read. There was a logic to th

fairly technical but interesting book on fossil birds

Chatterjee does a great job in presenting his case for Protoavis, a bird that may very well precede the famous Archaeopteryx of the Jurassic. Though a bit technical at times, it has a good overview of bird evolution and of fossil birds throughout the Mesozoic and throughout the Cenozoic, with excellent coverage of many Tertiary species, especially at Green River(from the Eocene of Wyoming) and Messel (from the Eocene of Central Europe). Their relationship to dinosaurs is well covered, and some time is spent on the K/T event that ended much Mesozoic life. Numerous diagrams and illustrations and a thorough bibliography. While not all may agree with his take on Protoavis, this remains a worthwhile on avian evolution and fossil bird speciesA good book.

A excellent, complete and up-to-date review

Although this book is much about the finding of Protoavis, it is also much more than that. The Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary birds are all treated, a superb argument for the evolution of flight from tree-dwelling dromaeosaurs is made, an important contribution to the understanding of the End-Cretaceous extinction is presented and the too-often neglected subject of heterochrony is discussed, too. The figures are excellent and very useful to help understand the text, which is sometime loaded with anatomical jargon. The book ends with a wise review of the modern extinction caused by spead of humanity to every corner of the planet. I also think that the recent discoveries made in China can be well integrated in the frame set by Chatterjee, so the book is not out of date at all. All in all, a formidable book for undergraduates and professionnals.

comprehensive

The Rise of Birds is a comprehensive review of the fossil evidence associated with the origins of birds. The section on Protoavis is a welcome description of this remarkable find.

Good, but maybe a bit out-of-date?

This is a good book, with useful text and drawings. Chatterjee discusses his *Protoavis* quite well, and tells us about his ideas. It is also very interesting in that it is more than the simple "*Archaeopteryx* is incredible because it is the first bird" type books. Chatterjee talks about an hypothesis (his hypothesis) that is not the one that everybody sees in popular journals and on TV.If he is right about *Protoavis* as being a Triassic bird, his discovery is truly marvelous. However, *Protoavis* is incomplete, and most paleontologists tend to challenge Chatterjee's view. So maybe the book is a bit one-sided. Chatterjee uses the book to prove that *Protoavis* could well have exist, but I think should have examined other fossil birds in further detail. There is another problem: there have been many very important discoveries recently, notably in China, relating to origin of birds. When Chatterjee wrote his book, none of these fossils had yet been discovered, and the book lacks them a lot.Although *The Rise of Birds* is a quite recent publication, it is already out of date, and it is its worst problem.