Flying Dinosaurs

Rating:
Summary: Solid portrayal of dino/bird story & great illustrations
Review: I purchased this book in the badlands of Alberta, where Phil Currie works, and was immediately inspired by his arguments for the connections between several lineages of dinosaurs and the evolution of birds. Following the introductory text, in one spectacular portrait after another, is a wonderful exhibition of the great variety of mesozoic bird fossils, reconstructed by illustrator Jan Sovak. The book is a bargain for the color reproductions alone, with the cogent writing of Dr. Currie adding the flesh and bone commentary on the fossil record.

The first half of the book develops a picture of the characteristics of flying animals, and, in particular, flying reptiles (pterosaurs), taking their story into full profusion of types and habitats. Over a dozen species are put into the spotlight, accompanied by Sovak's dramatic and vivid full-page illustrations for each species. After a brief review of the branching of dinosaur families, using the up-to-date cladistic approach, the full panoply of fossil birds is set forth in the last half of the book. The familiar one is here, Archaeopteryx, but then so many more, toothed and toothless, winged and flightless. The examples of early diving birds, from 80 million years ago in Kansas, with teeth in their beaks, are a startling reminder of how old the cormorant really is. The story ends with examples of more recent fossil birds, moa or less, and their life styles, including a "living fossil", the hoatzin, whose young have claws on the leading edge of their wings, like the feathered Archaeopteryx of 100 million years before.

The connection between birds and specific dinosaur families is well-presented, but the level of controversy is played down. More recent debate, for example in Audubon magazine, March 1997, is better balanced but also shows even more solid bird/dino evidence. Currie's Flying Dinosaurs now looks like it was 10 years ahead of its time.

I have two heroes in paleontology: Jack Horner in Montana and Phil Currie, just north of the border, in Alberta. Both are active in the here and now, and both dwell in the Cretaceous. For the lives of dinosaurs and their geologic setting, read Horner's Digging Dinosaurs, and for a complete and concise setting for the origin of birds, read this book, The Flying Dinosaurs. And don't forget to admire the imaginative illustrations.