Living dinosaurs : the evolutionary history of modern birds /
Living Dinosaurs offers a snapshot of our current understanding of the origin and evolution of birds. After slumbering for more than a century, avian palaeontology has been awakened by startling new discoveries on almost every continent. Controversies about whether dinosaurs had real feathers or whe...
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| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Chichester, West Sussex ; Hoboken, NJ :
Wiley-Blackwell,
2011.
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| Online Access: | Full Text via HEAL-Link |
| Summary: | Living Dinosaurs offers a snapshot of our current understanding of the origin and evolution of birds. After slumbering for more than a century, avian palaeontology has been awakened by startling new discoveries on almost every continent. Controversies about whether dinosaurs had real feathers or whether birds were related to dinosaurs have been swept away and replaced by new and more difficult questions: How old is the avian lineage? How did birds learn to fly? Which birds survived the great extinction that ended the Mesozoic Era and how did the avian genome evolve? Answers to these questions may help us understand how the different kinds of living birds are related to one another and how they evolved into their current niches. More importantly, they may help us understand what we need to do to help them survive the dramatic impacts of human activity on the planet. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xv, 422 pages, [8] pages of color plates) : illustrations, maps |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781119990475 1119990475 9781119990451 1119990459 1283405229 9781283405225 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/9781119990475 |
