Articoli correlati a The Origin and Evolution of Birds

The Origin and Evolution of Birds - Rilegato

Feduccia, Alan

 
9780300064605: The Origin and Evolution of Birds
Rilegato
ISBN 10: 0300064608 ISBN 13: 9780300064605
Casa editrice: Yale Univ Pr, 1996

Sinossi

This text is a comprehensive and illustrated discussion of the origin of birds and of avian flight. Ornithologist and evolutionary biologist Alan Feduccia, author of "Age of Birds," here draws on fossil evidence and studies of the structure and biochemistry of living birds to present knowledge and data on avian evolution and propose a model of this evolutionary process. Feduccia begins with an overview of bird evolution, giving his opinions about the controversial problem in verte-brate paleontology: whether birds evolved directly from bipedal, terrestrial dinosaurs (the ground-up theory) or from the precursors of dinosaurs - perhaps small arboreal thecodonts (the trees-down theory). He then provides information about the origin of avian flight and feathers and discusses the most dramatic discoveries in avian paleontolgy of the past few decades - the "opposite birds" that were the dominant landbirds of the Mesozoic. Feduccia next offers a theory of avian evolution during the Tertiary, arguing that the evolution of birds follows a pattern similar to that of mammals, with an explosive (rather than gradual) evolution lasting only 5 to 10 million years. In the second half of the book he summarizes the evolution of all the modern orders of birds, discussing such subjects as the evolution of filter-feeding in ducks and flamingos, the evolution of flightlessness, the evolution of birds of prey and the rise of landbirds. The book also includes reconstructions of ancient fossil birds that have been prepared by bird artist John O'Neill.

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Informazioni sull'autore

Alan Feduccia is S. K. Heninger Professor, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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Editore
Yale Univ Pr
Data di pubblicazione
1996
Lingua
Inglese
ISBN 10 
0300064608
ISBN 13 
9780300064605
Rilegatura
Copertina rigida
Numero edizione
2
Numero di pagine
420
Contatto del produttore
non disponibile
Persona responsabile
non disponibile